Light in Darkness

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.John 1:5

Over the past few days, I have presided over many services while also hosting my mother and other family for Christmas dinner. It is really a great joy to hear the laughter and singing that reverberated then and remains in my mind. People giving their hearts and souls to adore the infant Jesus and giving their all to and for one another. And no matter how hard we try, things get left out, bulletins have mistakes, people's feelings get hurt and the season swirls with failure as well as success. The darkness and hurt which inhabits human hearts is overwhelming and mysterious. How you can out many people in the same room who love each other very much and hurting happens is still a mystery hidden in darkness -why we do what we do some time eludes me. What I do know, is that despite it all, God loves u perfectly and wants, I repeats, WANTS, to be in the midst of our humanity with all our darkness and deceit.

In our household we try very hard to keep the twelve days of Christmas, through Epiphany, and enjoy the many ways we can celebrate the birth of Christ and God's love and activity revealed to the whole world. It is so easy, when the world is full of much darkness, and the skies are gray and filled with rain, to end the festivities and try to focus on the future and cleaning up. Some times it is easier to shut it all down than to linger in the quiet and sparkle on the coming days. Each new day has new gifts and revelations. I pray that I can open my heart and mind the the love which God has for us in every new day. And I pray that I can trust God completely yo bring the light I need - to believe that none of the world's darkness or the darkness within me can ever shut out the Light!