Candle of Love

If this advent season has felt particularly dark to you, take heart: God does some of His best work in the dark.

It was dark that night when an army of angels pierced the velvet sky, and all of Heaven was singing.
Emmanuel - God was with us.
He didn’t have to leave His throne and pull on the frail skin of Humanity; knowing Humanity would pierce Him in return.
But He did, for love.

It was dark the day noon turned to night and all of Heaven was crying.
Emmanuel - God longing to be with us, unwilling to live without us.
He didn’t have to shoulder every single thing that keeps our hearts in darkness, and take it all straight back to Hell.
But he did, for love.

Because of that dark night with the manger, we get that dark day with the cross.
Because of His birth, we get His death.
Because of His death, we get His life.
And so it goes, on and on;
An endless echoing paradox that reverberates through all of time and eternity.

He breathed in our hate, and exhaled love.
Inhaled death, exhaled life.
Inhaled darkness, exhaled light.
For unmerited-unending-rescuing love.
This week we leaned into the mystery that is waiting expectantly in darkness, that is advent, and lit our candles too.
Because “greater love has no one than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

I don’t know what love is too heavy, too hard for you today. What hollow pinching you feel where your heart should be thumping. But Emmanuel does. And everything that looks too dark, too far gone, is often what we can expect Him to love back to life.