Lately my life has been like sitting under a canopy out in the middle of the desert, beside a dirt road. Time ekes by very slowly as I wait for the bus to come by to pick me up and take me away from there, but the bus doesn’t come. So I sit and wait, the air terribly still and stifling, the road quivering in the heat.
I know, it’s a strange image. But in the middle of my virtual desert, something quite real and lovely has been happening lately. I have been waking up often in the middle of the night with a Christmas carol running through my mind:
God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day,
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray:
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.
I don’t wake to the tune, just the words, and they are quite powerful. The words of an Angel: “God’s Rest“…like a benediction blessing. How can I rest? I ask. The answer comes softly, immediately: “Don’t be dismayed…Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day!”
Ah, yes, Immanuel, God with us. God with me. As close as my breath, closer even. A smile fills my heart and crosses my lips. I snuggle my husband, skin over bones, for I want to impart this gift to him, too.
The gift? Knowing that Satan’s power has been crushed…the power of fear and of death. We had strayed for a time, but now we are on the road that leads Home. That is the benediction, the blessing that comes to those who trust in Almighty God who uses Earth as His footstool, yet fills my lungs with praise in the darkness of the night:
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy!