Come, Long Expected Jesus

It's overwhelmingly obvious to me this holiday season that as much as we celebrate joy and love and peace, the holidays are also a deep time of heartbreak and despair. Life and death do not stop to bake cookies and celebrate Christmas and the New Year. Tragedy still finds us and we miss the ones we love that are not with us each year.

Yet in the midst of great loss, I think the true Spirit has been even more evident this year. Communities coming together in love and the world engaging in random acts of kindness. It seems that for a moment, it is clear that this season is not about having the perfect lights or every present in place but rather about a Savior being born that came for just this; to redeem and save us all from the tragedy and pain of this world.

May we see Him this Christmas and celebrate; knowing that this is exactly why He came.

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee...