When last I wrote (October), I shared a number of responses from children (ages 4-8) to the question, "What is love?"...
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy – age 6.
"Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired." Terri – age 6.
There was one more in that internet posting that seemed more December than October. It says
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Bobby – age 7.
Having watched small children tear through the wrapping paper of Christmas present after present, I can affirm Bobby's age-7-wisdom. Spoken from the context of being surrounded by family and friends in a warm, safe place, love should be easily audible "if you stop...and listen."
But what if you are alone? What if there are no wrapped gifts? What if the place you are in is neither warm, nor safe? Those are the circumstances of many, many children, women and men, all over the world, in our own country, and even in our own community. Can love be heard, sensed, felt in those places?
Remarkably according to St. Luke, the birth of Jesus happened in circumstances much closer to loneliness than to the surround sound of love and celebration.
If Love is born separated in an out-building where animals were fed;
if Love is born in quiet seclusion outside of the
no-vacancy-inns of Bethlehem;
if Love is born under the hushed conversation of
first-time parents sensing a miracle
I suspect that love, God's Love, can be heard and sensed and felt even in the most lonely circumstances.
How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv'n!1
This is God's first love, most love, and always-able-to-begin-again love: Jesus the Christ. Christ is born and comes to us all. The Savior comes in the silence, in the noise, for the lonely, for the community, in the room with you at Christmas, even into the places where it is neither warm, nor safe. Immanuel! God is with us. Gloria in excelsis Deo!
O holy child of Bethlehem descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin, and enter in; be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell. Oh, come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel. Amen.1
Ref 1: O Little Town of Bethlehem, ELW #279
Contributed by Bishop Roy Riley
Monday December 21, 2015
Liturgical Year C: Week 4
Liturgical Color: Blue
Sunday Gospel reading: Advent4
Fourth Sunday in Advent