I was reading this blog today and this really stood out to me…

“Most of us will pass through this season with a dim recognition that not all is well. Most will seek to push back the ugliness with a few extra ornaments. Others will seek to stifle the stench with another sprig of evergreen. Still others will drown the sorrow in glass after glass of Christmas cheer, only to discover that it is anything but cheer-filled. The pursuit of the perfect gift will preoccupy the thoughts of some, allowing them to ignore the dull ache behind the heart. However, there will be moments of quiet when the anything-but-lovely pokes its head through our consciousness to disturb us yet again. And hope comes softly. As unmistakable and unobtrusively as Christmas lights shining from a front porch on a dark night, it comes. Made welcome by its absence, hope comes breathing life into our lifelessness, light into our darkness. It doesn't erase our burdens, it merely makes them bearable as we remember we are not abandoned to the darkness nor enslaved to despair. "In Him was life and that life was the light of men" (John 1:4). It comes softly, almost imperceptibly. Nevertheless it comes. Will we recognize it when it comes or will we rush by it in our pursuit of peace and joy?”

The world is not right.

I was also reading today the blog of a gal here in Prague and she was commenting on the posters against Human Trafficking that are now up everywhere in the subways of Prague. According to the website on the posters:

Thanks to the increasing level of the economy and shared borders with Germany and Austria, the Czech Republic has become a more and more attractive target country for traffickers, who tempt women from abroad to accept a job here in the hotel industry, in cleaning, or even in nightclubs. Women from Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Belarus, Slovakia, Romania, Vietnam, China, but also from the Czech Republic are originally offered a well-paid job in good working conditions, but the reality is often far from that.”

The world is not right.

“And in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said; ‘For hate is strong, And mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men!’ Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: ‘God is not dead; nor doth he sleep! The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men!’” – Longfellow

At advent we can say in honesty the world is not right, our own lives are not right, but God will make it so. We do more than wish for peace on earth and good-will to men, we claim it as a promise of God. Christ has come and is coming and in that we can hope that all will be made right.

“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling [a] together; and a little child will lead them.  The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.  The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.  They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” – Isaiah 11:6-9

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman