“It gets darker and darker and then came baby Jesus.”
Ann Lamont shared the words, above, spoken in her presence by poet and author, Wendell Berry. It was a dark and stormy December day.
Today is a rather dark day, as the sound of rain falling interrupts the Christmas music playing in our house. Or is the music interrupting the rain falling?
In our world there is much darkness, much hatred, much too little peace … too little peace on Earth.
Darkness is the backdrop of our world and our lives, today, as it was that first Christmas, when love and light came to us in the form of baby. The innocence of a helpless, dependent baby, in the arms of his mother, who he came to save.
Delivered in the arms of a world, who he came to save, to redeem.
And, as a helpless babe, he was entrusted to a dark dark world. A world given the choice to love him, or reject him. To embrace him, or abandon him.
But, this celebration of Christmas is about how the light of that helpless babe still shines.
It shines in his birth foretold so long before fulfilled.
It shines in the Christmas story fulfilling the prophesy.
It shines in you and me, those of us who claim his redemption, who live illuminated by his love within us.
Merry Christmas is not a message for red cupped retailers, or turkey dinners or reindeers with lit noses.
Merry Christmas is the message of the word, become flesh, in the form of a baby, arms stretched open towards all of humanity, giving light to a dark world.
“CHRISTMAS hath darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answering music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.”
Christina Rossetti
itsawonderfilledlife 