In Land of Great Darkness


About a week ago I got my best and most favorite Christmas present. I had lunch with a dear friend who wanted to know the story. His story. The whole thing. She had never heard it before and had never before wanted to hear it, but over the last year she had come to the gradual realization that she needed to know it. That this wasn't enough. That the stuff that she had wouldn't fill the void within. She has beautiful children and a loving sucessful husband, a lovely home, plenty of possesions and plenty of friends. She is a kind and generous person; a joy to be around. But as we all eventually realize, all of the stuff and all of the people won't fill the void, won't provide the satisfaction that we're looking for. Because we were created for Him and in Him and through Him we find the answers to all of the longings in our hearts. So we sat down and started with the most basic question of all, "Do you believe He IS?" and from there we started with the beginning of story. The part where He creates in love and breathes into us the breath of life and we continued with the walk down the ages as watched as we turned our backs on Him but yet He loved us and He unfolds for us a plan, a crazy plan that by all of our standards seems unthinkable; it's not how we would do it. But our creator unfolds this crazy, beautiful plan through time and generations, and it continues to unfold just as He planned it despite the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of the people in the story. And then we come to Him. He steps into our time and space. The Word becomes flesh and dwell among us. What an unimaginable thought. The creator of the time and space became a helpless baby born to unimportant people. And He lived and experienced love, pain, joy, betrayal, and every other thing that we experience that He might become our perfect substitute. Our redeemer. And when I told of His death in our place I watched her cry and whisper, "that's so unfair". And yet the story doesn't end there. It ends in hope and in victory. We the created are again able to know our creator. And someday the endless injustice, pain, sickness, and evil that we witness in all the world around will be erased and and this time He will step onto center stage in the way we all would have planned it the first time, with our power and majesty. She asked me "Why doesn't He do it now? Why wait? There is so much hurting here." And I told her "because He is waiting in love, waiting for you, He's calling you and so many others and He's waiting because He loves you, because He wants you to come" And all I could think of was those verses in Isaiah 9 "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwell in a land of deep darkness on them has light shined." I live in a land of great darkness and that day a light shined on a very dear friend. There is nothing more beautiful than watching that light go on. The truth is so beautiful. It's a beauty we feel in the depths of our souls because it's what we were created for. He's the only thing that satisfies. That's the beauty of Christmas. The hope that we have because He came. I hope this Christmas you were able to stop and drink deeply of that truth and that you were able to share it again and again with your friends, your family, your children, and anyone who He brought across your path.

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