DESPITE THE DARKNESS

My latest ’saying’ (in Spanish, ’Dichos”) for when things get difficult is:“Well, at least, it’s not Syria” ( a country where millions live, or have lived in , or died because of, the dark—both literally and metaphorically).

When Jesus was born, he, also, entered a world with a lot of darkness. Maybe that’s why the Star of Bethlehem—which some believe was not a star at all, but a conjunction of three planets—shone so brightly?  As if God wanted to say in Christ’s birth what the writer of John’s Gospel did say: “The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.” 

Advent—beginning Nov. 27—is a time to hold on to that thought; and to remember God’s light is greater than this world’s darkness. Sometimes we’re tempted to disbelieve that;  or, to imagine the time in   which we live as darker than others in history; but, Jesus was born under a blanket of night (figuratively and literally) in a time of Roman oppression,  invading, foreign armies, and, almost as many problems, as...Syria. 

I hope you will hold on to that in whatever season you journey; and we will hold on to God’s light, together, in this season of Advent.

Yours in Christ’s Service,

 Pastor Linda