Ah … remember good Ol’ Jacob Marley from last week? How he appeared in his pigtails, usual waist-coat, tights, and boots? He also sported a huge chain “clasped about his middle … and wound about him like a tail … made of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel” (Dickens, C. 2014. A Christmas Carol. New York: Global Classics; p. 12).
When Scrooge summons the courage to ask Marley about the chain, Marley explains: “I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it” (Dickens, p. 14). Scrooge trembles more and more as Marley goes on: “Or would you know the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have labored on it since. It is a ponderous chain” (Dickens, p. 14).
Jacob Marley has come to give his only friend in life, Ebenezer Scrooge, a tremendous gift. “I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and a hope of escaping my fate. A chance and a hope of my procuring” (Dickens, p. 15).
The gift?
"You will be haunted," resumed the ghost, "by three spirits."
“Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?” Scrooge demanded, in a faltering voice.
“It is.”
“I-I-think I’d rather not,” said Scrooge.
“Without their visits,” said the Ghost, “you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow, when the bell tolls One” (Dickens, p. 16).
Sure enough, when the bell tolls one in the morning, the first ghost appears. I find Dickens’ description of the first ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Past, fascinating: “It was a strange figure – like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child’s proportions … and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the very wonder of this, it would be itself again; distinct and clear as ever.” (Dickens, p. 19). The ghost’s voice was “soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if instead of being so close besides him, it were at a distance” (Dickens, p. 19).
The Ghost of Christmas Past … its appearance constantly shifting, changing … like a child and at the same time an old man … appearing close then far away … light one moment and dark the next … one leg, two legs, twenty legs, no legs … a body without a head … a head without a body … fading away and at the same time distinct and clear as ever … the ghost’s voice sounding far away even though it was standing right in front of him.
The Ghost of Christmas Past is a personification of “memories.” Sometimes our “memories” are clear and distinct and other times they can be dim, fuzzy. Sometimes we can remember things that happened years … even decades … ago as clearly as if they happened yesterday and sometimes we have a hard time remembering what happened a week ago. Memories can suddenly rise up out of nowhere and fade away … only to reappear another day. Memories can change over time … they can become distorted. What we remember may contain elements of what happened but most of what happened isn’t true … facts get lost and new “facts” get added. It’s like the song “I Remember It Well” from the movie “Gigi” where an aging couple remember the first date they went on. “I was early – you were late” … “we dined with friends – we dined alone” … “you lost a glove – I lost a comb” … “You wore a gown of gold – I was all in blue” … each time followed by the chorus: “Ah, yes … I remember it well.”
Memories help us shape and define who we are but who we are or who we believe we are also changes and shapes our memories. Our memories influence how we see ourselves and the world … and the world and how we see ourselves help shape our memories.
The other thing about memories is that we all have them – some we choose consciously and others just seem to pop up out of nowhere. Memories are just part of being alive. We are constantly making them all the time. Some memories are beautiful, significant … something that we want to remember and hold on to … but we also have other memories, don’t we? Painful memories … sad memories … embarrassing things that we would rather forget that keep coming back and haunting us … like a ghost from out of our past, amen? Some memories can warm our hearts and other memories can be painful … especially when they come out of nowhere or come unbidden and we are forced to look at them as the Ghost of Christmas Past does to Scrooge. Again, as painful as this experience may be, Jacob Marley’s ghost is right …. We cannot hope to shun the path that we’re on without first looking at our past. Sometimes we need to see where we’ve been before we can understand how it is that we got here, amen?
The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge where and how his “ponderous” chain began. On the surface, the memories that the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge seem to be happy ones … but behind each one lurks a darker memory. The Ghost of Christmas Past uses these “happier” memories as a way to shed light on the darkness that has clouded Scrooge’s heart for so long and made him the “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous, old sinner” (Dickens, p. 3) that he has become. Scrooge is always bitter and exasperated with the people around him … but as we go back into his past, we find out that he wasn’t always like that.
The first place that the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge is to his hometown. As you may recall, Scrooge was filled with joy. He remembered every gate and post and tree. He knows all the boys calling out Christmas greetings and farewells as they head home for the holiday. His lip quivers and a single tear rolls down his cheek as he is flooded with happy memories of growing up there. Behind these happy memories, however, is a darker memory for Scrooge … the memory of a lonely boy sitting on a bench reading near a feeble fire in a cold, vast, empty classroom … and Scrooge’s single tear of joy becomes a flood of tears as he weeps at the sight of his “poor forgotten self as he used to be” (Dickens, p. 21).
Seeing his “poor forgotten self as he used to be” (Dickens, p. 21), Scrooge is suddenly reminded of a more recent memory … that of a boy singing “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” that he had chased off earlier in the day. “I should like to have given him something” – a glimmer of regret and the first hint of a desire to repent … to change his ways. “The ghost smiled thoughtfully,” says Dickens, “and waved its hand, saying as it did so: Let us see another Christmas” (Dickens, p. 22).
Suddenly Scrooge is a little taller and a little older … still at school, still alone, while “all the other boys had gone home for the holidays” (Dickins, p. 22). Scrooge looks at the ghost and mournfully shakes his head and looks anxiously at the door because he knows who is about to come through that door … “a little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting in and, and putting her arms about his neck, and often kissing him, addressed him as her ‘Dear, dear brother.’
“I have come to bring you home, dear brother!” said the child, clapping her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh. “To bring you home, home, home!”
“Home, little Fan?” returned the boy.
“Yes!” said the child, brimful of glee. “Home, for good and all. Home, for ever and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home’s like Heaven! He spoke so gently to me, one dear night when I was going to bed, that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home, and he said Yes, you should; and sent me in a coach to bring you. And you’re to be a man!” said the child, opening her eyes, “and are never to come back here; but first, we’re to be together all the Christmas long, and have the merriest time in all the world” (Dickens, pp. 22-23).
Behind every silver cloud is a dark lining for Scrooge. His sister’s joy reveals that there must have been a rift or a falling out between Scrooge and his father … which may be why he doesn’t go home during the holidays like the rest of the boys … either because he doesn’t want to because of his father or because he wasn’t allowed to because of his father … or both. His father’s change of heart seems to have come from the fact that he is either very old or very sick … or both … and needs his son, Ebenezer, to come home and take care of the family.
Looking at Scrooge’s younger sister, Fanny, the Ghost of Christmas Past observes: “Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered … But she had a large heart!”
“So she had,” cried Scrooge. “You’re right. I will not gainsay it, Spirit. God forbid!
“She died a woman,” said the Ghost, “and had, as I think, children.”
“One child,” Scrooge returned.
“True,” said the Ghost. “Your nephew” (Dickens, p. 23).
Anyone care to guess his name?
That’s right … Fred.
Dickens describes Scrooge as uneasy in his mind at this point … probably remembering how gruffly and crudely he had treated his nephew, Fred, when he refused his nephew’s invitation to come and join him and his wife and friends for Christmas … an invitation that Scrooge coldly and flatly rejected.
The Ghost of Christmas Past then transports Scrooge to the warehouse of a kindly old gentleman named “Fezziwig.” “Know this place?” asks the Ghost. Scrooge lights up. “Know it! I was apprenticed here!” (Dickens, p. 24).
The warehouse and offices are all in an uproar as the Fezziwigs plan a grand office Christmas party … food … decorations … wine … music … the sound and laughter of good friends celebrating the holiday together. Caught up in this wonderful memory, Scrooge is filled with such joy and delight that he momentarily forgets the ghost’s presence. Playing ‘devil’s advocate,’ the spirit acts unimpressed … or mirrors the current Scrooge’s attitude toward such frivolous things:
“A small matter,” said the Ghost, “to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.”
“Small!” echoed Scrooge.
The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices … one of whom is Scrooge … who are pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig (Dickens, p. 26). The ghost presses Scrooge. “Why!” he asks. “Is it not [a small thing]? [Fezziwig] has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?”
“It isn’t that,” said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former, not latter, self. “It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ‘em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune” (Dickens, p. 26).
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on a minute here! Is this Scrooge, the squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous, old sinner we know so well? Scrooge … arguing with the Ghost of Christmas Past that money isn’t the source of happiness!
Once again, this memory reminds him of a more recent memory. “What is the matter?” asked the Ghost. “Nothing particular,” said Scrooge. “Something, I think?” the Ghost insisted. “No,” said Scrooge, “No. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now. That’s all” (Dickens, p. 26). What a contrast between Fezziwig’s treatment of his apprentice, Scrooge, and the way that Scrooge treated his clerk, Bob Cratchit, amen?
“You’ll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?” Scrooge snarls at Cratchit.
“If quite convenient, sir.”
“It’s not convenient,” said Scrooge, “and it’s not fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you’d think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound?”
The clerk smiled faintly.
“And yet,” said Scrooge, “you don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.”
The clerk observed that it was only once a year.
“A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!” (Dickens, p. 9).
At that moment, Scrooge had the same power as Fezziwig to render Bob Cratchit and his family happy or unhappy … to make Bob’s service light or burdensome … a pleasure or a toil … for a lot less than three or four pounds!
These moments … the lonely Christmases at the boarding school … his sister, Fanny, coming to see him … his time as an apprentice at Fezziwig’s … all foreshadow where the Ghost of Christmas Past is going to take Scrooge next. He’s going to take Scrooge to the time and place where he forged the first link in his great chain of sin and regret.
As Dickens put it, Scrooge gets to see himself again. He is older, a “man in the prime of life. His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years; but it had begun to wear the sign of care and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye which showed the passion that had taken root.
“He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in mourning-dress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in the light that shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past.
“’It matters little,” she said softly, “to you, very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.’
“’What idol has replaced you?’ he rejoined.
“’A golden one’” (Dickens, p. 27).
At the beginning of Dickens’ carol, we see, of course, how this “golden idol” has cheered and comforted him. He is a friendless, cold, empty man living in a lifeless, cold, empty house.
Scrooge’s blindness and darkness begin. She offers him a chance and a hope that he’ll make the right choice … but he chooses money over her. “You fear the world too much,” she tells him. “All your hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach,” she tells him. “I have seen your nobler aspirations fall one by one, until the master-passion, gain, engrosses you, have I not?”
“What then?” he retorted. “Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you” (Dickens, p. 27).
The problem with being lost is that we often don’t know we’re lost … and don’t like admitting we’re lost even if we suspect that we might be just a little bit lost, amen? Have you ever been in a car with someone who is lost and won’t admit it? Before you look at the person next to you, look in the rearview mirror. We’ll drive a hundred miles in the wrong direction before we’ll admit we’re lost, won’t we? We’ll drive by the same gas station or the same billboard five or six times before we’ll finally admit that we’re lost. It isn’t until we are absolutely convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are truly lost that we’ll finally admit defeat and humbly pull into the gas station and ask for directions. Am I alone in this … or can I get a witness?
Before I can repent … before I can “turn around” and change the direction that I’m going in … I have to first do what? I have to see … I have to know … I have to believe … that I am, in fact, going in the wrong direction. If I am absolutely certain and convinced that I am going in the right direction … that I am absolutely on the right track … why would I ever need to stop and ask for directions … am I right?
At the beginning of Dickens’ carol, Scrooge has absolutely no desire to repent … to change his life or change the direction that it is going. In fact, he’d be amused, angry, and flabbergasted if you were to suggest that he should repent. Besides describing Scrooge as a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous, old sinner” (Dickens p. 3), Dickens goes on to say that nobody “ever stopped in the street to say, with gladsome looks, ‘My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?’ No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways … But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance” (Dickens, p. 4).
There is an interesting feature about the Ghost of Christmas Past that I would like to mention. “From the crown of its head,” said Dickens, “there sprung a bright clear jet of light by which all things are made visible” (Dickens, p. 19). Let me repeat that: “… from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light by which all things are made visible” (Dickens, p. 19). Sound familiar? It should. “The light shines in the darkness,” says the Apostle John, “and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5).
According to the Bible, we’re not big fans of the light, amen? We love the darkness because it hides our evil deeds. I think we also love the darkness because it hides our painful memories and allows us not to see the dark sides of our hearts or our nature … and if you don’t think that you have a dark side or dark little secrets that you try to keep hidden from God, from yourself, and from everybody else … well … let me tell you … you’re kidding yourself, my friend … “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) … “all” … that includes you and that includes me, amen?
We can look at the process that Scrooge is going through one way … as painful and negative … or we could look at it another way. You see, so long as I am convinced that I am heading in the right direction, I have no need to stop and ask anybody for directions, right? I’ll just keep going and going and going. Once it becomes clear to me, however, that I am truly and hopelessly lost … it might bruise my ego … it might damage my delicate pride … I might have to humble myself … admit that I am wrong and … gulp! … ask for directions … but at least I’ll be heading in the right direction, amen?
When God puts us through this process of ego-deflation, we often view it as a painful, unpleasant, negative experience … instead of the precious, loving, caring gift from God that it truly is! Christ said that we are to take up our crosses, as He did, and die to ourselves … to give up our claims to run our own lives … to place our lives and our future completely into His care 100%. But our egos say, “Nay, nay!” We would rather blindly and recklessly drive on … but once the errors of our ways have been exposed by the light of God’s love, we either rebel or we humbly submit to His help and guidance. When we do that … when we see and believe and accept the truth that we’ve been going in the wrong direction and we turn around … we wonder why we resisted for so long, got so lost, and insisted on relying on anyone or anything other than God … you follow me?
The Apostle Peter was by no means a “Scrooge,” but he had to learn through basically the same process that he was self-willed and completely lost. At one point, Jesus called Peter “the rock” on which He was going to build His church (John 1:41-42). Can’t you just see Peter swelling up with pride? “Hey! Zebedee Brothers … did you hear that?”
Peter may be the rock on which Christ was going to build His church but there was no way that Peter could build the church on his own. Peter would be the rock which “CHRIST” … not Peter … would build His church … Christ’s church.
Before Peter could be the foundation of Jesus’ church, however, Christ had to shine His “light” on Peter to reveal … well … some pretty tough things … some unpleasant, humiliating things before Peter was truly ready to die to “self” and allow God to work in him and through him.
Peter obviously had courage. He was the only one who stepped out of the boat during a raging storm, remember? The others stayed in the boat. Listen carefully to what happened. Before he got out of the boat, he did what? He called to Jesus. “Lord … if it is You … command me to come to You on the water” (Matthew 14:28).
“If it is You, Lord, command me.” Peter starts out right. If Jesus commands you to get out of the boat and join Him on the water in the middle of a storm … then, by God, Jesus will give you whatever you need … strength, courage, faith … to step out of the boat and join Him on the water in the middle of a storm, amen?
And that’s exactly what happens. Peter steps out of the boat and walks on water until … when? Until he takes his eyes off Jesus and looks down. When he takes his eyes off of Jesus and looks at the waves and the storm … he sinks like a “rock.”
Did Peter fail? You could look at it that way. Or you could look at it another way. He learned a valuable lesson about Jesus and about himself. If Jesus is going to use Peter to be the “rock” or foundation of His church, Peter had better keep his eyes on the source of his strength … his courage … his faith … when the wind and the waves … when the troubles of life begin to blow all around him. If he looks to his own strength … if he relies on his own resources … he will sink like a “rock” just as he did that morning on the Sea of Galilee. You and I may have all the strength and courage and confidence in the world but sometimes … many times … it’s not enough. And sometimes Jesus has to let us sink before we realize that we must constantly keep our eyes on Him, amen?
But the lesson isn’t over. Jesus comes over and lifts Peter up and puts him back in the boat … and then gets into the boat with him. He doesn’t just put Peter back in the boat and walk away, does he?
If we are to ever shun our ways … if we are to ever turn around and start heading in the right direction … Who do we have to look to? Who do we call to? And if we should again lose our way … if we look down and start to sink … again … Who can we call to? Who can we count on to come rescue us … again and again and again? The Bible tells us that we must learn to “trust in the Lord with all [our] hearts and lean not on [our] own understanding. In all [our] ways submit to [God], and He will make [our] path straight” (Psalm 3:5-6). When Christ began to build His church on His foundation, Peter had to learn to lean not on his own understanding but trust that the Holy Spirit would give him the courage, the wisdom, and the faith that He would most certainly need.
Relying on our own intelligence, we are not only limited but we can also deceive ourselves or be deceived by Satan into thinking that we are on the right path … heading in the right direction … and yet be totally lost and off course … like Scrooge. You see, Scrooge thought that he had a good life, believe it or not. He thought that he had the world and all the people in it figured out. More importantly, Scrooge thought that he had himself all figured out … and nobody could tell him otherwise until a ghost showed him how he got to be a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous, old sinner” (Dickens, p. 3) … link by link. Every chain has to start with that first link, amen?
When Jesus tells His Disciples that He’s going to be arrested, persecuted, and crucified, Peter jumps up and swears an oath that he will follow Jesus to the very end … whatever that “end” may be. But Jesus has to once again shine the light of truth into Peter’s heart and soul. “No, Peter, you will not. When they come and arrest me … when you see what they’re going to do to me … when the reality of what I’ve been telling you hits home … you will deny me. You will deny that you ever knew me. Don’t shake your head ‘no,’ Peter. You will not only deny ever having know me … you will do it three times.” And Peter is devastated when the truth of Jesus’ prophesy comes true.
I’m sure that Peter meant it with all his heart, with all his strength, and with all his soul when he made the pledge to follow Jesus to the very end. He had the heart of lion … and Jesus knew that. That’s why He said that He would build His church upon Peter, His “rock.”
Jesus knew that when He was gone and the Romans and the Jewish leaders challenged Peter and threatened him … when they persecuted him and eventually executed him … that Peter would serve him to the very end … but not by leaning on his own strength, his own courage, his own understanding.
Peter’s three denials were a painful lesson for Peter. He was made aware of his weaknesses and his shortcomings … but he also learned to look to the Lord … to lean totally and completely upon the Lord for his strength and courage in times when strength and courage were called for.
When Jesus called him out of the boat, Peter learned that he could walk on water. When Jesus told him to feed His sheep and build a church … Peter had learned that of himself he can do nothing but in the hands of God all things are possible to him who believes and who seek the strength of the Lord, amen?
When Jesus calls YOU out of the boat … when Jesus tells YOU to go feed His sheep … He will equip you … He will give you His Holy Spirit. He will give you what you need to succeed or to accomplish His plans … but … before that can happen, Jesus has to shine His light upon you. He has to show you who you really are … show you how much you rely upon yourself and how little you rely upon Him. He has to show you how lost you really are so that you can stop … ask Him for directions … and head in the right direction.
This truth inspired the Apostle John to write: “Little Children” … that’s us … “You are from God, and have conquered [the evil spirits that oppose us]. For the One who is in you” … the Holy Spirit … “is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4) … or for the Apostle Paul to profess: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
This is what Jesus came to do for us. He came as a Light into our darkness … not our physical darkness but our spiritual darkness … our spiritual ignorance and denial. He shines His light on us and we see the truth of who we really are … and it’s a painful process … but also a tremendous, priceless gift!
Scrooge is beginning to realize how the person he is doesn’t look at all like the person he once was. His bitterness has consumed any kind of love or joy that he once knew. He’s beginning to realize that he’s been walking down a path that he was never intended to tread.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were convinced that they were on the right path. They knew exactly what was up. They had no doubt whatsoever that they were on the right track spiritually. They had God’s Word … they had God’s law … they had His prophets. The more Jesus tried to shine a light on them … to break through their denial … to show them how lost and off-track they really were … the more they dug in … the more they closed their ears and their hearts … and the more they insisted that they were right and Jesus was wrong … all wrong … thus sealing their fates … to be lost here … and to be lost for all eternity … to miss the Kingdom of God altogether.
But there were some who did listen … Pharisees like Nicodemus … who realized that he had passed the same gas station six times … Pharisees and people who were willing to admit that they were lost … who were willing to listen and follow Jesus’ directions for getting back on track … headed in the right direction on the right path. There were those like Matthew and Zacchaeus who had no doubt that they were lost and way, way off-track. They welcomed the Light … the Light of God that revealed what they already knew or suspected … that they were weak … broken … lost beyond all hope. They welcomed the Light … with a capital “L” … because it guided them back onto the right path.
God is shining His Light of Truth on you right now. What are you going to do? Are you going to retreat? Hide from the Light of His truth? Are you going to resent the Light? Ignore the Light? Hate the Light because of what you’re afraid you’ll see? Worse … what Jesus will see?
Trust me, the Light is for YOUR benefit. Jesus already knows what’s hiding in the corners of your heart and soul. You can hate the Light … fear the Light … resent the Light … run from the Light … or you can welcome the Light. Ask God to help you accept and endure whatever His Light reveals. Accept who you are and trust that when God tells you to get out of the boat and walk on the water … or face persecution … or share your faith … or be the kind of parent or employee or servant that He wants you to be that there is a reason … that He has a purpose … that He plans to use you and build His Kingdom through you.
Remember how Scrooge planned to spend his Christmas Eve? Alone … locked up in the darkness of his dim house. Dickens tells us that “darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it” (Dickens, p. 11). Indeed, darkness is still cheap and easy to manufacture. Darkness’ raw materials of despair and denial are in constant supply. Scrooge liked darkness, as we often do, because it hides what we fear. It keeps us from facing reality. It allows us to stay blind to the truth about ourselves. But like so many things that come cheaply … our dependence or over-indulgence in them comes at a great price.
The Light of God … the Light that came into our dark-loving world … is love. God’s hope and forgiveness act as a light that brings judgment. I know that most of us get uncomfortable when talking about God’s light and judgment … as if we’re going to be declared unworthy of God’s love … but look to Scrooge!
Without God’s Light … without the promise of God’s love … Scrooge was doomed … and so are we! It is God’s love and judgment that are bringing Scrooge into the light and showing him the miserable truth of his life so that he can repent, change his ways, and get on track to a better life … the life that God intended for him and not the one that he made for himself. Can we strive to see God’s judgment as a form of God’s love?
During Advent, we celebrate the coming of God’s Light into our world … bringing the transforming love of God into the darkness of our world and the darkness of our hearts and souls … but transformation can only happen when we receive the loving judgment of God … using the discernment that God’s Light had revealed to us to break or unbind us from our broken past so that we can find healing and a new future based on God’s promises.
Let us welcome and celebrate this most beautiful and wondrous Light brought by the most beautiful and wondrous child gift sent by the most beautiful and wondrous God to push back the darkness of our souls so that we may see the truth, walk in the truth, so that we can break free of the prisons of our own making and become the children of God that He has created us to be, amen?
Let us pray:
