Friday, December 11, 2015

AdventWord 13: Shine



That's sometimes the hardest thing of all...to shine.

The darkness deepens.
Days get shorter, nights longer - and the press of sadness in the world begins to overwhelm...or maybe I  simply get bogged down in the gap between my own reality and our aspiration to belong to the perfect church, the perfect family, celebrating the perfect Christmas.

Instead of thinking loving thoughts and maybe saying a prayer with each card I gallop through them just at that point when even posting them leaves me anxious. Will they arrive on time?
Instead of finding unique, creative presents which simply exude love and care, I revert to type and spend an evening shopping on line, using a company whose ethics I deplore.

But this season of Advent is my favourite ....because of the darkness...because of the longing to arrive somewhere I can only begin to imagine....because lions and lambs are not yet lying down together...and people do hurt and destroy....and yet we know that in ALL THAT MESS.......
the light still shines....and even my poor little efforts to love a bit more help the light to shine more brightly.
And the darkness cannot overcome it.

Now light one thousand Christmas lights
On dark earth here tonight.
One thousand, thousand also shine
To make the dark sky bright.

#AdventWord


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