Dear Friends,

Each year, on Christmas Eve, we read from the prophet Isaiah: 

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness—

on them light has shined.

—from Isaiah 9:2–7

These words of Isaiah from the 8th Century BCE addressed a specific time and situation, offering hope to the people of Judah in a period of devastation, most likely the occupation by Assyria. For centuries this text has also captured the imagination of those who read it in a Christian context and who have found in its words a powerful vocabulary that describes the coming of light and the birth of a child who would be known as the Prince of Peace.

I will admit that this passage stirs up a certain kind of longing for me. After a two-year pandemic followed by endings, departures, and transitions, I yearn to experience what it feels like to have come all the way through, to stand at that place where it becomes possible to look back and to see my journey more clearly, the light shining on all the dark spots.

But even deeper than this longing is a sense of hope that Isaiah calls forth with such clarity. Much more than a dream of some far-off day when all will be set right, Isaiah acknowledges the spiral shaped time in which God has already accomplished the redemption of our world while also working it out. We are invited to move within this “already but not yet” kind of time – within a world which we can’t yet see even as we participate now in bringing about the restoration and wholeness that Isaiah’s words declare.

Isaiah’s words spoke to a particular people in a particular time. As we stand at the threshold of the Christmas season, in all the longing and hope that it holds, I invite you to listen for the joy that calls your name, and bear witness to the light that might already be arriving. 

And to help us do that, here are some questions to consider: Has there been a time when you were able to glimpse the wholeness the journey holds? What gift might that have for you in this time? Here at the edge of the threshold that draws us into Christmas, what are you noticing? What do you hope to carry with you across the threshold—or to let go?

May God bless you during this holy season of Christmas,

Amelie+