Good Tidings and Great Joy in the Midst Death, Disease, Decay and Impending Doom -or- The Advent of Wiping Tears From Our Eyes

The skin between the knuckles stretches tight as it grips to the steering wheel. I’m trying to look somewhere else besides here. But I look up. I look out. And here is the world. Here are images. Here are people. Here is oppression. Here is hate. Here is death. Here is disease. Here is hurt. Here are ugly things. Things that are broken. Burning buildings, battered faces, abandoned babies all here looking back. Floods and hunger; a whole population ignored and left to die. Abuse and pain. War and hot metal piercing soft skin. No more. We don’t want to see it. Our eyes move from the ground shifting and cracking beneath our feet up into the air; looking for hope in stars and longing for the return of the reign of Deep Heaven. Expectation. Anticipation. Water-filled eyes looking for the setting of all things right. We sit in hospital beds, lonely rooms, crack houses, whore houses, prisons, park benches, front steps, projects, pews, and office chairs with hopes and dreams, hurts and needs. A collective humanity longing for the Kingdom Come. We try our best to walk with Him and live the Kingdom here and now. But we still hope, long, and anticipate. We still search the skies for the brightest star, listening in the silence for some noise; some message to proclaim good news again. You have come into this mess. You are here with us now. You are still coming toward us. And our expectations beat within our chests. I wish it was my ears who heard the first proclamations of good news. Let me hear it again and again, how I should not be afraid, things are being made right, there is cause for joy, how God is here.

The Shepherds have long-since breathed their last breath and told their last story around the fire. The wise men have long-since returned home on the back roads and gazed for their last time on the stars. And we are here.

We are here, and you are here with us, somehow. Together we carry the weight of making things right. Tonight, we will wipe tears from eyes. We will fill empty stomachs and warm shivering bodies. We will stand strong at the side of the oppressed. We will dispense enough love that it might blot away the pain and abuse, that it might end addiction. That it might heal and make beautiful. It might make Home, and it might make peace.

May this season be the advent of peace. May it be the advent of love. May it be the advent of joy. May it be the advent of beauty. May it be the advent of good things. May it be the advent of wiping tears away. May it be the advent of justice. May it be the advent of freedom. May it be the advent of making things right.

And may my hands loosen their grip on the wheel. Let me look on the world with hope. Let our fears fade away. Let the good news resound inside of our chests. Let us find more things being made right. Let us all find joy. And let us know that You have come, that you are here, and that you are coming soon. Amen.