We’re depending on God;
he’s everything we need.
What’s more, our hearts brim with joy
since we’ve taken for our own his holy name.
Love us, God, with all you’ve got—
that’s what we’re depending on.
Psalm 33:20-22
This season is magical.
Hope come to life.
Joy come to life.
LOVE come to LIFE!
All things aglow. Glitter, bows and twinkle lights. The perfect shade of hunter green against a delicious candy apple red, all hung with great care.
But I would argue for so many I love, the past week has been anything but Hope, Joy, or Love. There has not been much time for admiring glittery ornaments, or the sweet shades of green and red. Instead, this time of year has met them with growing problems. There has been Pain. Grief. Heartache. Loss. Sadness. Cries for help. Cries for God. Cries of Anger at God. Questions. Tears. More Tears. Unimaginable Weeping.
And I reply, Come Lord Jesus, Come!
I want the Lord. Now please... if I am being totally honest.
Recently, I have found myself in moments of prayer or conversations where I have no answers. I pray, cry, my heart breaks for those I love, and I pray again. I have found myself continuing to go back to the words of "O' Holy Night."
The verse I am drawn to is, "The Weary World Rejoices."
Life at the moment, feels weary for so many people I love.
Why then would a weary world rejoice? In the midst of chaos and pain where are we rejoicing? Why are we rejoicing? When I look all around and it seems that life is not as it should be... the act of rejoicing seems an almost impossible task.
To Rejoice? In our weariness, our pain, our suffering?
I watched "The Family Stone," on Saturday Night. Drank red wine, addressed Christmas cards, snuggled with Mason and Milo, and continued to cry. It is one of my favorite movies... A family returns home for the holidays, and their mother Sybil Stone is sick with cancer, cancer that she has beaten before. The movie shows the complexities of family, the dynamics of feisty siblings, and opinionated parents. There is great moments of laughter, and so many moments I find myself welling with tears. It does not dwell on Sybil's sickness, actually is never really mentioned, except for a scene with one of her sons.
Here is what Sybil says when she opens a gift on Christmas morning, given by Sarah Jessica Parker's character Meredith.
Sybil Stone: [to Amy, after opening Meredith's Christmas gift, a photo of a very pregnant Sybil] That's me and you, kid. [Amy looks up, crying and nodding]
Sybil Stone: Me and you.
Me and you.
Me and you.
That's Me and you. It's Me and You!
IN a weary world, where hope seems lost... It is Me and You says the Lord.
Weary ones, We do Rejoice!
We CAN Rejoice!
The promise this season is not magic, not twinkle lights, and all things wrapped neatly with bows. No, the promise is that God came near. Immanuel, God WITH us! He has not forgotten us. He has not looked away. He is not sleeping. He is present and with us. That is the promise... Me and You, kid!
I think about Mary... my goodness how badly she must have wanted to know how it was all going to turn out. How weary her situation must have felt. How she must have pleaded for God, to get it. To understand WHY it was all happening. Pregnant, engaged, so very young, angels speaking, leaping babies in bellies... How scary. How messy. How mixed up.
And like the song says, It is divine. I wish we could understand divine. I wish we could gather all the evidence, and in some small way "get it"! Get what God is doing here on Earth. Understand why things happen, where God is, what is going on. But it is a Holy, Divine, Big, Powerful, Mighty God who dwells with us! And that is not our promise, to understand... OUR promise TODAY is that He is WITH Us... ME and YOU!!!
Me and You! WE are never alone. Much like a woman who is pregnant for 9 months WITH child, our God cannot... Will not... Separate Himself from us! How much more then is He is WITH us!
Me and You, kid!
To my weary world... God is STILL God! Rejoice that He is with you, stands next to you, grieves with you, hurts with you, cries with you. Yes, God is present in your suffering and in your wondering.
Weary Ones could we rejoice today. Rejoicing that our Home is not here. That our God is coming. That we are not forgotten.
Me and You!
Rejoice in the Sweet Promise, Me and You... unbroken, forever, in it all... Me and You!!! Oh, how Divine and Holy He is... Oh how precious is the promise.
Weary Ones... He is WITH You!
May Jesus Himself drawn near to you, and whisper sweetly, "Me and You, Me and You!" wherever you need to hear that PROMISE today.
And as the song goes, "For Yonder Breaks, a New and Glorious Morn." That is what we are promised. He doesn't say when, or how, but we are given through His presence a new and glorious morn.
Weary hearts, hope on the new and glorious morn. He will come. He is coming! He is OUR Hope... Me and You, Me and You, Me and You!!!
Me and You...
One of my most favorite ways "O'Holy Night" is sung... SNC!!!