Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Holiday Joy and Winter Cold
December brings an avalanche of parties and festivities. Special music fills the air; decorations color inside and out; fires burn brightly. The smells of holiday foods and drink greet our arrival and we share the laughter and excitement of the family and friends. Such joy! Such warmth!
December also brings the cold of winter. The tree branches are bare and brown. The skies often turn gray. Daylight lasts but a short while. Tis’ the season of colds and flu, sleet and snow. Such pain! Such bitterness!
Advent, the anticipation of the coming return of the Christ, carries a similar confluence of joy and pain. The arrival of the babe of Bethlehem is cause for great joy most assuredly. ‘God with us’ gloriously fills our world. But this joy casts a shadow at times over other joys. Our joy cannot be complete until all find joy in the salvation God has wrought. The struggle continues, pain intervenes, darkness is. All of heaven and earth, as the song shouts, must receive their king.
How can we find joy that lasts?
Dialogue with your family, friends, God. (Use your imagination if family and friends are not present.) Pray your dialogue with God.
Come Lord Jesus, come. Amen.
Come Lord Jesus, come. Amen.
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