“Oh come thou Dayspring come and cheer our spirits by Thine advent here, disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death’s dark shadows put to flight.”
It’s the 26th of November and Christmas music streams in my ear buds. Songs of Noel and Emmanuel’s coming.
My perspective on Christmas is so different than last year. I wonder how I’ve made it through these last 11 months. Through learning to hope again, through slipping on courage, and finding my roar.
Last year, Christmas for me was experiencing God with us. A concept I knew so well but at the time felt more foreign than anything I knew.
And I’m struck again this year by God with us. Where last year was the taking of my hands by Godly ones and being told, “I’m here Prudence. I’ve not abandoned you. I’ve not left you. That ocean that you feel you’re a castaway in…you’re not drifting alone”, this year it’s more an indwelling deep within me.
A reassurance.
A peace.
My our circumstances haven’t changed. Magical, holy fingers haven’t snapped and made all things better. We’re still sitting in the circumstances of a year ago. Yes, some of this is just plain our own fault because of our own fears, reluctance, sign expecting, etc.
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Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas. The birth of our Savior. We’re not simply celebrating a birth, but God who meets us where we’re at. In Hebrew the word Emmanuel means God with us. With us in our unbelief. With us in our hurt. With us in our broken hearts. With us in our anger. It’s easy for us to think of God with us in our joy, but how much more comforting to think of Him with us in our darkest moments.
I could not have come through a couple very dark months when curse replaced praise. I could not have made it though these last 11 months of literally learning to walk again if it were not for Emmanuel.
“Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel has come for thee…”
