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It’s that most wonderful time of the year again. Hope is born; the angels sing; shepherds and kings worship. So, what is this heaviness of heart offended by hope? Why the tears when eyes behold the illuminated tree, the twinkling tinsel? Could it be a lingering of the suffering shadow that so long ago lay across the babe cradled in hay?
Christmas choirs sing, “Mary, did you know?” As she gazed on her newborn infant, kissed the soft curve of his cheek, smiled at his lips, not long removed from breast, sucking in sleep…did she know? Did she kneel shrouded in the shadow of the cross? Throughout the sanctuary young mothers shed tears while cradling their babes to breast – empathetic hearts aching.
Is it this shadow that stirs up melancholy even whilst singing “Joy to the World?”
Statistics scream the sad story – though Hope is born this day, too many plunge beneath the weight of world weariness. Depression and suicides surge while the babe revisits the crèche. Nostalgia threatens to choke life, but for what do we yearn? What do we long for as we gather with candles lit to praise the newborn King?
Could it be this longing foreshadows life glimpsed, yet not grasped? Shadow-to-shadow mystery waits to be revealed.
Come, world-weary travelers. Don’t pity the babe or His mother. Though the shadow of the cross lingers, the Son will rise. Pause…consider His suffering, the price paid for our sins. Now, receive the gift! Walk on in the knowledge of Easter morn – the Son has risen! “Joy to the World,” indeed!
