Joy! That is the message this Sunday. We light the pink candle, and we look to our joyous celebration of Christ’s birth as well as to His second coming, which we wait for amidst the groaning labor pains of all creation. Even in suffering our joy is at hand.
This is why I love Enya’s version of O Come, O come Emmanuel. It has that soft, mournful tone of a world that is subjected to futility, a world that longs for redemption. And echoing in the background, as if from somewhere outside of time you hear: Rejoice! Gaudete!
And we need to know that our rejoicing is not a glib refusal to accept the harsh realities of our day, but an enduring hope that we can indeed reject the concerns of the flesh, which lead to death, and receive the Spirit of God, which is not enslaved by fear: "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, 'Abba, Father!'" Romans 8:15
Continue reading at Heidi's blog Journey to Wisdom.
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