This little light....

First this: God created the Heavens and Earth -- all you see, all you don’t see.
Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.
God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
God spoke: “Light.”
And Light appeared. (Genesis 1:2-3) 

What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out. ( John 1:4-5)

The days are growing shorter in this season of waiting and we are in darkness. Two shootings this week; children and loved ones innocently gunned down.  North Korea and Iran are close to being able to kill millions through nuclear arms.  People are still out of work and homeless. Many go to bed hungry. Entire villages in Syria no longer exist and AIDS continues to devastate Africa.

O God, why have you forsaken...?
We are poured out like water and all our bones are weak.
Our hearts are like wax melting within our breasts.
Our strength is broken like shards of pottery.  (Psalm 22)

Today it is dark.

I had plans today.  Put on some Christmas music and wrap gifts.  Maybe bake some bread and write our family Christmas letter.

But today is dark -- a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness, a soup of nothingness.

And the only word I have in this darkness is “Why?".  A word spoken by all people.  A word even spoken by Jesus while he died on the cross.

“Why?”  has to have its way with us.  It is a word that introduces us to the depths of despair, injustice, forsakenness, terror.  It is a process that needs to be honored, felt, lived. It is the void of utter meaninglessness that we are made to bow to in order to shatter our illusion of control and embrace our humanity.

Today it is dark.

Today I don’t claim much, but I do know this.  The way of Jesus is the way of letting go and being broken open.  The way of Christ is through the valley of the shadow of death.

Christ calls us through the halls of Sandy Hook Elementary School as well as the Clackamas Town Center Mall.  And as he walks with us, he becomes the Light -- a way in the darkness.

“Peace I give to you, but not as the world gives. Do not be afraid.”