December thoughts

My dear one,

How can we be halfway through December already? October, November, and December are my three favorite months, and as I drove to prayer meeting with the bright orange supermoon on the horizon and tears trickling down my cheeks, I grieved the fact that another year is almost past without me knowing your smile, your voice, your companionship.

I sit in the warm glow of the delicate white lights on my Christmas tree, and sip a peppermint mocha in celebration of turning in the semester's grades. If you were here I'd have you pick a Christmas playlist to serenade us, but as it is I'm once again defaulting to my favorite John Rutter carol settings.

This past Sunday evening I played for the Lessons and Carols Service at a beautiful church downtown where the people are truly my brothers and sisters in Christ. If my own church did not exists, that is where I would be worshipping week by week. The Lessons and Carols program was executed at a superior level to what my church will offer this coming Sunday evening, but of course that is not my sole criterion for liking or disliking, or choosing or rejecting, a church. Unlike the treacherous behavior of many in even my own church lately, I refuse to break my covenant of membership and loyalty for petty reasons.

After playing in that Lessons and Carols Service, I found myself strolling around the downtown area, admiring the festive window displays, scanning the variety of menus posted in the restaurant doors, gazing wistfully at the small ice skating rink set up for the season, and walking along our beloved bridge that spans a waterfall. Small delights... which I'm able to enjoy alone... but would treasure all the more with you beside me.

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is playing right now on my Christmas playlist, which reminds me of God's covenant promises. How so? Well, I recently finished taking my Sunday School class through the story of Ruth, tying it into the promise of the Messiah that would be born in the very same town centuries later, in the genealogical line of that poor Moabite widow who was welcomed into the people of God. "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee [Bethlehem] tonight... How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is giv'n! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heav'n. No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in... O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel."

I pray that you will know the comforting presence of Emmanuel ("God with us") in what can be a very lonely time of year for those of us still waiting for a fellow-pilgrim to come alongside us as we travel this long journey. I don't know if you're ahead of me on the road, or waiting for me to stop so you can come up to join me, but I pray that the Lord will unite us soon.

Your Evenstar