On Christmas Love

He freely gave to be both rent and torne

Of cruell hands, who with despightfull shame

Revyling Him, that them most vile became,

At length Him nayled on a gallow-tree,

And slew the lust by most unjust decree.

O huge and most unspeakeable impression

Of Love’s deep wound, that pierst the piteous hart

Of that deare Lord with so entyre affection,

-Edmund Spenser

The Lord invites you into a quiet, reflective space amidst the loud and noisy world. Come, and join me in this space. I am trying to dwell in it as much as possible. In this time of preparing, we tend to jump ahead all the way to the end rather than dwell in the presence of the waiting and of the darkness. Of Advent - of coming. There is wonder in the waiting. There is wisdom to be gained in the period of anticipated straining forward for what will come. He will come. He will come as we would not expect. 

We, too sit in this place of anticipated waiting for Him to come again. We know the full story of Christmas and Easter, but we don't yet know the full story of New Creation and His coming again. While we have the perspective of hope that comes through Christ and the resurrection, we still look ahead not knowing all the details of how His second coming will unfold.

In church this weekend, my class talked about prophesy and how the Old Testament looked ahead  with vague and nebulous foreshadowing of the coming of the Messiah. There were not many details and no timeline spelled out. There was just enough for what we needed - the hope of what was to come. We may have wanted more, but the Lord provided enough. This leaves open to us the freewill that God has given us. Everything is not set in stone how it will play out. We then have this responsibility to play our part well, even while not knowing all the details (as many of us would like to know - any other highly detailed people out there?)

I love the phrase in Spenser's poem, "of Love's deep wound", which reminds me of the cost of the love that we have. The selfless, sacrificial, deep love is the gift we have to open. May these next few weeks of preparing for Christmas remind us to prepare our hearts as well - to listen in quiet for what the Lord wants us to learn from this time of waiting. What could He want you to hear?