To borrow a phrase from Queen Elizabeth, 2014 was an annus horribilis on my calendar of life, with one tough thing after another. If I were to paint a portrait of the past twelve months, gray would dominate the color palate. I know God was there with me, but the God light was faint most days.
All to say, the following encouraging word from David Lose, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, is just what I need heading into 2015 — and I suspect there are others who need the promise of God’s unconditional love and care.
“It’s an audacious claim, when you think about it: that the birth of a baby to an unwed teen amid the squalor of a backwater town could possible matter. And yet there, in a nutshell, is the promise of the Gospel: that God regularly shows up where we least expect God to be and always for us.
So though this world be dark, it is not forsaken, and the headlines we read and worry about will have their day and then fade again against the backdrop of this story we’ve been telling now for nearly 2000 years. God loves this world! And God will not give up on it…or us. Moreover, God continues to come to love and bless this very world and invites us to do the same” from a blog article titled “Christmas Eve/Day B: The Christmas Sermon I Need to Hear.“
Happy New Year, friends.