“God with us” in the mess. This season we will focus on the comfort and courage found in the presence of the Christ child. We focus in Advent on this presence by remembering the Biblical name for him – Emmanuel.     

This season we’ll remember and practice the gifts of comfort and courage through Advent’s weeks of preparation for Christmas. This is not to deny the pain of our world; it is to center ourselves in the Good News that pain and injustice and our own sin do not have the last word.

Christ has come (already) – in the flesh – to be with us in the pain we know, in the pain we fear and even in the pain we’ve caused.  Our comfort and courage are anchored in his Light of redeeming love, and our saving strength is known by trusting this Light.  

The Light that has already come and shines on no matter the clouds that temporarily block our vision.

Let us not be ashamed by our need for comfort, and let us not settle for cheap versions of the comfort we seek.  We may need soft and gentle and familiar nurturing comforts; we also may need the cleansing and relieving comfort found only after the difficult and distressing truth-telling about our pain.  We may need just the comfort of others’ companionship when no answers are on the horizon. We may have no idea what we need. 

Much is a mess and unresolved and, of course, we still have needs and longings and hopes as did the people who first trusted Christ. But for this season we choose to draw comfort from what IS.   

God with us, revealed in us, Emmanuel.

Let’s draw comfort and courage this season as we CELEBRATE truth in the midst…

In Christ’s Peace,
Pastor Jacki