This was to be posted at Christmastime but I was having blog problems. So, I guess this is for all of us that feel like Christmastime was long, long ago.

Christmas Hopes and Fears

We’ve miss something if we equate Christmas Eve with a “silent night.” Jesus’ birth… any birth is hardly silent. Animals next to the feeding trough are hardly silent.

A packed town crammed with people is hardly silent.

Angels proclaiming an unbelievable message… no silent.

Shepherds barging in (did they bring their sheep?)…hardly silent.

Its fair to assume that the first Christmas was loud, confusing, stressful, surprising, unknown. Maybe similar to the way we might feel in the midst of Christmastime.

Some of these feelings are holiday-induced… but maybe more are also life-induced.

There are hopes and fears of jobs lost and found, the reality of friends moving closer and further away; the realization that family brings both joy and stress ; the pressure to give yet the reality of our own needs. All are present… back then, even now.

Maybe Jesus does meet us where hopes and fears of all the years are present.

The good news of the Christian story is that Jesus comes in our midst. Here. In the space of our hopes and fears. Christmas reminds us that God does not shout from heaven, but whispers in our present circumstances words of love and solidarity…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.