Rejoice!

I couldn't leave this blog on such a bitter note right before Christmas.  God is good, giving a message of hope.

We went to church at a later service than we normally attend.  As we watched the people enter the sanctuary, I was amazed by the diversity.  I always felt somewhat uneasy about the majority of white, wealthy folks that filled our church when we first started coming years ago.  But today, especially, I noticed the rich variety of colors and races and cultures walking down the aisles, crowding into the pews.  It seemed only fitting that our first hymn was:

"O come, Desire of nations, bind
All people in one heart and mind;
Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease;
Fill the whole world with heaven's peace;
Rejoice! Rejoice!..."

The pastor read from Isaiah 9, that familiar passage we all know: "For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

Many aren't so familiar with the chapter before, when the Assyrians invaded and Israel was razed.  Chapter 8 ends with, "They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry.  And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.  And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish.  And they will be thrust into darkness."  God is at war with us when we rebel against him and we will live in gloom and misery. 

Yet, into chapter 9, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined." When we realize our desperate situation, we will come come to the light and be healed and be saved.

"O come, O come, Immanuel..."  Immanuel, God with us.  He has come.  He is here now. God sent light and redemption through his Son. We have much reason to rejoice!