Pastor's Pen - December 2008

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

One of the carols of the Christmas season begins with the words "In the bleak midwinter, when snow lay on the ground". To be sure we have been quite fortunate with the weather that winter has not yet been too bleak or too snowy. However, in many other arenas of life the bleakness is all too apparent. Economic news continues to dominate the headlines, from bailouts to bankruptcies, from joblessness to falling markets, it seems never ending. Wars and senseless violence seem more an accepted part of life today than the devastating realities that they have always been. Even our own personal lives can seem bleak and dark. Within one week's time, three of my siblings were hospitalized and a niece died. It truly does not take cold and snow to make a time bleak in people's lives.

 

But the carol does not leave us abandoned in the cold and snow. It goes on to speak of the child in the manger that could not be contained by either earth or heaven. God has come to us in that child. God has risked everything to enter in to our lives and our world that we might know the power of God's love and grace and might be assured that no matter how bleak, no matter how cold, we are never alone in this world as the children of God's dominion. To be sure the support of family and friends in times of darkness is crucial. But even that is topped by the assurance of the presence of God, a God who knows and understands and strengthens and sustains no matter what.

 

Much of December will be spent in anticipation, On the one hand anticipating the return of the Savior to claim this world as God's own. On the other hand there will be the anticipation of once again celebrating the Savior's first coming as a child to take upon himself the sins of the whole world. In either case the anticipation calls us beyond the shallow trappings of the commercialized season to the depths of God's love and grace. This anticipation frees us from the bleak midwinter of our lives for the brightness of God's kingdom now and always.

 

As we wait, let us wait in hope and in the promise of God's richest blessings.