“Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.” Psalm 80:3

Kathleen McManus* asks, “What will it mean when the Christ light bursts upon us? When that light comes what new future will be revealed?”

A church I served was going through a difficult time. Words had been said, that ought not to have been said. Sides had been drawn up. Lines had been crossed, and feelings hurt. We were not at our best as a community. Which is why one moment, all these years later, stays with me as a sign of God’s grace. 

There we were coming to Christmas, broken and hurting as a community.

A tradition on the first Sunday of Advent, during the Hanging of the Greens Service, was to hold hands as the last carol was sung. That year, my friend Charlotte, offered to come to our church and sing for us, knowing our little church had neither choir or vocalist for the special service. As the service neared the end, Charlotte began to sing “Sweet Little Jesus Boy,”  in her clear strong voice, without accompaniment.

“They made you be born in a manger
Sweet little holy child
We didn’t know who you were
Didn’t know you’d come to save us Lord
To take our sins away
Our eyes were blind, we could not see
We didn’t know who you were”**

In the holding of hands, and as  the words Charlotte sang reached our hearts, through that mystical way of God, we were bathed in the sacred . . . A  holy moment, healing hurts of the past year, as Christ’s light burst upon us.

Prayer: Compassionate God, In this season where hurts are raw and misunderstandings grow, pour out your restoring love, that we might be healed. May Christ’s light shine upon us and grow us in love for one another. Amen.

Additional resources for Advent to Epiphany, can be found here  at: Devotions to Advent to Epiphany

*Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1, pg 84, Westminster John Knox Press
**Sweet Little Jesus Boy”  Robert MacGimsey, published by Carl Fischer Music.