Last year for Christmas I got one of the best gifts–a subscription to Touchstone magazine. If you’ve never read it, you must. I’ve never been into magazines. When I was little I read the Sporting News’ baseball edition but that’s about it. With Touchstone, I usually read it from cover to cover within a week of its arrival at my house.
This month one of the articles focuses on the darkness that lays the backdrop of “God rest ye merry, gentlemen.” Every Christmas hymn has a few lines that just slip out of our mouths without us really pondering them. The song says, “Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day; To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.”
I met with Dr. Sveen a couple weeks and shared with him about Nathan’s drowning. He reminded me that because of sin, nothing in this world is the way that it is supposed to be. Shalom has been broken. 3 month old Jack Taylor has just lost his father, Nathan. Jack James, from my home church in Dallas, though it has not been confirmed yet, has probably lost his father–one of the missing climbers on Mt. Hood in Oregon. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.
Janet and I went to see the Nativity Story last night. I can’t put into words how wonderful the movie was. I cried, laughed, praised the Lord under my breath, and still feared the lurking evil that is very poignantly portrayed. The angel told both Mary and Joseph not to fear, and yet, they have this very human conversation on the shore of Galilee where they ask each other, “are you scared?” They sheepishly smile at each other and admit that they are.
This year, more than ever, I’m thinking that the greatest Christmas gift would be if Christ would return again. No more hurt, no more mourning, no more pain in my right elbow…to have shalom again.