O Holy Night
The words of my favorite Christmas hymn have been fluttering through my mind today. I'll quickly insert here that, yes, I do start listening to Christmas music around this time but, no, do not shop or join the general Christmas countdown hysteria. The music of Christmas is comforting. And powerful.
O Holy night is a hymn that uses a myriad of words to pronounce a powerful, powerful message. It does not repeat the same phrase 50 times, rather it pulls words and imagery from many corners to create a moving masterpiece (in my humble opinion). Singing it in my head or from my mouth, the third verse especially comforts and excites me.
"Truly He taught us (by example) to love one another" (He did not just shout out a command from the Heavens and hope we caught on. He lived out love so we could learn. In other words, He taught.)
"His law is love and His gospel is peace" (He's a fierce and mighty Warrior who is jealous of our affections...and yet, in His kingdom, which is here and now and forever, the law IS love and the motto of this place is always peace.)
"Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother" ( Beautiful! Beautiful! My deepest desire in teaching my children about the world is that they understand that they have no right, no grounds whatsoever to look down on anyone else. We were all slaves, every single last one of us, to filthy, dirty ugliness. But a big, powerful God has, in an instant, broke the cold hard metal of the chains that kept us there. THAT is why we should be looking up.)
"And in His name all oppression shall cease" (Again, Hallelujah!!!! I cannot watch the news without a profound sense of sadness at all the injustice there still is in our 'modern' world. Especially after having children...the phrase "She/He is someones Son/Daughter" is spoken in my thoughts as I watch someone suffering from the injustice, either at the hand of their government, their culture or their own personal demons. The "thrill of hope" (taken from the second verse of this hymn") is that only in His name will all this cease. Someday. Hopefully soon.
With all my heart, I praise His Holy name.
I have to say that I write this sincerely. Most days, the only song that flits through my head is "La la la la, La la la la, Elmo's World (repeat), Elmo loves his goldfish, His crayon too...That's Elmo's world!". I fail to remember and reflect on the fact that I was created by and serve an amazing, smart,just, funny (He's got to have a sense of humor!), powerful, loving, majestic God who desires my company and gratitude!
My heart desires to be opened to the fact that God is not American.
He is not remotely containable.
He is not to be understood or figured out.
He is good. Just. His kingdom is here and now.
And I live under a law that is love.
Now that I've penned out those thoughts, I will turn off the computer and walk through the rest of the day, hopefully keeping those words in my head. Oh, yes, most likely they'll be 'paused' during a vocal interruption, in which my son shows the chains of his bondage to ugliness through a loud, sudden scream when he realizes the world does not revolve around serving his every whim (imagine that!). Or I'll probably find something to fret over. Like I did at the beginning of the week when I obsessed over a mole on my chest I thought had changed in appearance (no, it wasn't my breast, but believe you me, it has some things in common!). I had my funeral all planned out. Until I went to the family doctor and he told me that hormones had cause my pigmented skin tag to change a tad. I tearfully hugged him and left with a new lease on life-or rather, I just walked out of there feeling silly.
I hope you have a good day. It's rainy here. But I'm nice & warm & dry. What a gift.
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