Right now I'm listening to the haunting, yet stunningly beautiful strains of a single piano playing "O Come O Come Emmanuel." It surely is one of the most powerful of all the Advent/Christmas carols, and it nearly always moves me to tears. The minor key, the lament, the longing for Emmanuel to come...and to come in the midst of this world's sorrow and brokenness. O come, please come, dearest Lord Jesus, and "free Thine own from satan's tyranny. From depths of hell Thy people save. And give them victory o'er the grave."
Yes, "Thou Day-Spring come and cheer our spirits by Thine advent here. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel."
Isn't that the kind of Advent and Christmas so many of us are celebrating/mourning/rejoicing/lamenting? Yes, it feels like Narnia--where it's "winter but never Christmas"--but we know, we call to mind, we remember and then we choose to rejoice that You came and broke into this sin-sick, broken world to redeem us and, as the carol says, to save us from the depths of hell and gave us victory over the grave.
Thank You, Thank You, thank You, Lord Jesus! Help us to remember in the midst of our struggles and sorrows that You came, You are here, You are with us and in us, You will never ever leave us, and You are coming again to make all, all, all things new.
You will defeat and destroy forever the sin that hurts us...and the cancer that robs those we love of health and life...and the brokenness that haunts our world and harms Your children that You love and for whom You died and rose again.
Our family is enduring one of those hard, dark, winter times right now with my dear sister-in-law very sick. But as heartbreaking as it is at the moment, her future is utterly, wonderfully secure. One day, she will step into heaven and experience unimaginable glories, love, peace, joy and wonder. Praise You, Lord, for the hope and promise of heaven! She and all who love the Lord have infinitely more ahead of them than what is behind them. Life on this planet is but a speck, a dot in the limitless ocean of God's glorious forever.
How I love these words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, written to his fiance while he was imprisoned in a Nazi prison cell. He would be executed months after writing these words...but oh how they speak to all of us who might be going through our own winter suffering right now:
"We shall both experience a few dark hours--why should we disguise that from each other? We shall ponder the incomprehensibility of our lot and be assailed by the question of why, over and above the darkness already enshrouding humanity, we should be subjected to the bitter anguish of a separation whose purpose we fail to understand...And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives."
Whatever winter you might be enduring right now, please remember that "God is in the manger" but He's also on the throne of heaven and earth and He is with us. And He is bringing unconquerable wealthy in your poverty, light in your darkness, and succor in your abandonment.
Emmanuel--"God with us"--is with you, in you for you, behind you, beside you and before you. He will put "death's dark shadows to flight" forever and ever when you wake up in the eternal wonders and glories of heaven.
And so, in the midst of lament, we rejoice. O come, O come Emmanuel.
To God be all the glory.
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