Rest and Hear

I was setting the timer on the camera and decided to snap a practice shot.

They make me glad.

(Glad: made pleased, satisfied, or grateful. very willing).

Its been a favorite for a long time, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. Loved it all over again at the candlelight service at Cross Church Fayetteville tonight. Cried over it again, too.

Happy tears over the good news for people in sad shape.

And life is good and I have this beautiful family and we do our Christmas Eve dinners in pajamas with dance parties to the Home Alone Soundtrack and Dad lights the candles for ambience and Mom does up the roast and Emily comes in the door laughing with a welcome guest because Mom also does up the hospitality.

Life is good and I am thankful.

And yet, all around, there is sad.

The tricky thing about empathy

(empathy: the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it).

is that the sadness around me

easily permeates the good surrounding me.

Sad for the full term baby lost. Sad for the children forced to militias. Sad for those limp with hunger. Sad for situations that necessitate fostering. Sad for the lack of foster care. Sad for prejudices. Sad for the least of these. Sad for how little I've done to make good of the news by serving where it's sad.

I'm so thankful for the good surrounding.

Yet sadness permeates.

And yet, all is well.

Because the whole message of Christmas is that God came.

He permeates, too.

(permeate: to diffuse through or penetrate something).

And He is good.

And good wins.

"It came upon a midnight clear,

the glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth,

to touch their harps of gold:

"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,

from heaven's all-gracious King."

The world in solemn stillness lay,

to hear the angels sing.

...

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,

whose forms are bending low,

who toil along the climbing way

with painful steps and slow,

Look now! for glad and golden hours

come swiftly on the wing.

O rest beside the weary road,

and hear the angels sing!"