Winter Solstice

We just endured the longest night of the year. Winter solstice. How appropriate for it to come at this time. 

Christmas isn't always all peace and joy. For many it is a dark and lonely time. Very like that first Christmas. God had been silent for hundreds of years (how's that for a long night??). 

The world was a dark place (do you feel the same of our world today?). Jesus came in a messy and painful way (giving birth isn't all magical-it is messy and painful and hard). It wasn't a perfect, "silent" night. All was not calm and bright. It was dark and lonely and hard. 

Can you relate? Yet, in the midst of such a long and dismal darkness, one tiny glimmer of light can be so bright. Did they see it? Do you see it?

I know so many are enduring hard things. You are lonely, anxious, sick, scared, broken-hearted. It has been a long night. But I'm praying that as you wake this morning, you see the glimmer of light. 

When Jesus came, He didn't make everything perfect and right just yet. He made a way. He brought redemption. And although that redemption is not fully known in our world yet, it is promised to us, just like He was promised to us before His birth. He is coming again! (Oh please come quickly!) This night will not last forever. The Day will come. Take heart. And be ready. Hope and Rescue.