Hope Held

(If life was a musical, I'm pretty sure this song would accompany this post.  You can hear it at the bottom of the blog, too.  Just follow the link.  You'll be glad you did...)

I’m not sure about you, but my heart held Christmas differently this year. 

Like many of you, I cried openly to news programs and interviews of parents and law enforcement still trying to make sense of the heartache unfolding in a small Connecticut town, hoping it wasn’t true.   And when the 25th came, I couldn’t help but remember the twenty-seven seats around dinner tables in Newtown that were empty this Christmas.   Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals sat under trees, unopened.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

I couldn’t wrap my mind around the mom, who just hours earlier had made breakfast for two littles - now desperate to find them in the faces of the scared students filing past her.  She embraced her daughter, and then waited again.  She searched.  She traced the outline of each child, but her son’s gait never trailed the pavement.

He survived, miraculously found an alternate route to safety.  A trembling mother’s empty arms were filled.

Some years back another young mother’s arms cradled a son.  There was no school shooting that day, but despair hung thick and heavy in hearts, nonetheless.  And just in time, when we thought we’d never see His form, He exploded to our world and caught us up in His embrace…as a baby.  His hands were small and His breath, shallow.  And the cup of our hearts ran over.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men."

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Empty to full.  All because of a child.  All because of a Son.  All because of a little baby in a humble stable, held by an obscure momma.  All because God would not stop looking for us.  Tracing outlines and searching faces, He wouldn’t rest until we were home.  He couldn’t give up.  Because we’re His.

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world. 

JESUS

Emmanuel.  Rescuer.  Ally.  God with us.  Hope…victorious and near.

In two days, we will welcome a brand new year.  And my heart is holding it differently, too.  With more tenderness.  More heart.  More love.  Longing to grab hold of each day and live whole and well.  I don’t know what opportunities or heartaches await, but I do know that Hope has come.

I hope your Christmas was merry.  I hope your hearts and your New Year are full.