Here we are, quiet on the first of December day, waiting for hope to break through after a long and tiring year.
Would the weary of hearts and those scraping to survive through losses still catch glimmers of hope?
Would we who have lived through darkness still see the dawn of light?
On this first December day — we no longer want to go back to the way things used to be.
More than a vortex of activities, a frenzy of rush, an adrenalin for what shimmers and glimmers — we want something more, something deep, something eternal.
We want a slower Christmas.
A slower, fuller Christmas.
After a year like 2020? We now want December to be our month of miracle, our festive reason for a future forward —
We want Advent — and anticipate Christmas with the kind of hope that doesn’t break, the joy that runs not dry, the love that goes on and on and on…
We want Him — the joy of our day, the love of our lives.
“Immanuel” whose name breathes being with us, whose arrival bears our hope for humanity — He is the thrill of our hope, the one with whom our weary world rejoices. Because though our world is dark, Advent reminds us that He isn’t too far off to rescue us.
No matter how covid-buffeted or cancer-battered our faith and body may be, Help isn’t too far off from rescuing us.
Help isn’t too distant from touching us. Not too powerless from saving us.
There is grace which whollycovers all our gaping losses, and out of His fullness — we are filled.
“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given”. (John 1:16
So no matter what we find ourselves in today, or whatever we find ourselves waiting or being worried about,
Here’s an invitation for us to slow right down and wait along —-
So we can hope long —
And rejoice all life long.
So trace the timeline, the story line, the lineage lines and we know, yes we know, we have all the reasons for joy.
Because in every struggle to keep hope burning and faith alive, even in our own struggling to trust again — we find our every answer when He suddenly came that Christmas day.
He, our our Babe-turned-Saviour, the Servant-King who forever landscaped the topography of our heart, has made us to believe:
He can do it, even in a year like this.
A 2020 Christmas is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity.
And so, we will wait quietly still for the coming of Heaven’s assured love…