Chihuly Glass – The Ceiling

For years, I only bought Christmas cards that had a picture of the three wise men on them. It was my strategy to make sure I was in the right season when they were sent. I knew that the likelihood of getting cards in the mail before Christmas was in direct proportion to the parties, programs, practices, presents and cookie making I needed to get done. My best intentions of having them sent in time were often thwarted. Throw in a pastoral crisis or two, and the cards waited till January.

Something in our hearts and minds yearns for a perfect Christmas. A Christmas that fulfills our expectations of what the day ought to be like, when all the pieces of life fall into place. Written into our hearts and souls is a yearning for a day when everything will be right. Justice will come on earth and will usher in a time of peace and harmony which spreads throughout the world. This yearning has existed, almost, from the beginning of time. In our personal lives we yearn for the spirit of Christmas to warm our hearts in some mystical, magical way, telling us all is well.

The book of Isaiah was written during a period when there had been a series of corrupt kings. Throughout those years, the nation had been under attack with great loss of life. The words of Isaiah carry both promise and hope. “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding. . . the spirit of counsel and might . . the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:1,2) Hundreds of years later, the promised savior does not come in Israel’s strength, but in it’s weakness. Not in the days of power but rather in powerlessness. When all seems lost, God works in that mysterious way of God to change the course of history.

Isn’t that the way that God most often works in our lives? When all seems lost, God moves in and around us, bringing life to dead and barren places. Just at that moment when we are ready to give up, God surprises us with grace and compassion. God works in our lives a miracle of love that restores hope and gives us a promise that there will be a future.

This Advent season is one to reflect on our faith, our lives and the one who enters our world in Bethlehem. It is written of him, that “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:3)

Our world is far from a perfect place. Wars consume lives of innocents. Systems of justice get corrupted. The wicked still prosper at the expense of the laborer. Good people grieve their losses. The promise of a day when all is just, peaceful and righteous continues to pull at our hearts, because it is God’s dream. The longing continues and will continue till God’s kingdom comes in all of its fullness. Meanwhile, there is Jesus, who came as Emmanuel, God with us, to walk with us through all the days of our lives in this imperfect world.