Heart Tracks - Dark Streets Shining

       A friend and I were recently talking about how the season of Christmas can bring about so many different emotions.  He said, borrowing from the line of the classic Dickens novel, A Tale Of Two Cities, "It is both the best of times, and the worst of times."  It may be that a number of you know how true that really is.

     That, and something else he spoke set me to thinking on what I write today.  In response to my last Heart Thoughts, he used the verse from the carol O Little Town Of Bethlehem, changing the verse slightly, but powerfully, writing, "In our dark streets shineth an everlasting light.  The hopes and fears of all our years are met in Him tonight."  Thinking on that verse, it was brought to my mind all the dark streets that the woundings, betrayals, and disappointments of life had brought me down.  Some of them so dark that there could not be perceived any "light at the end of the tunnel."  All I could see was tunnel.  Some of the darkest of those streets had me as a traveler at this very time of the year, Christmastime.  Christmas, from my earliest memories, had always been a time of joy and happiness, even as an unbeliever.  It was not so on the dark street.  What had once been the best of times, was now the worst.  Yet on that street, the Father had something for me to learn, to know, and it was to realize that the joy, wonder, beauty of Christmas wasn't found in the tinsel and glitter that the world puts upon it.  The world knows how to "package" Christmas, it has no idea about how to "give" it.  Yet the Father did.  He knew over 2000 years ago when He gave us His only Son, Jesus.  Jesus who came to us, died for us, rose for us.  He came to the dark street of the world.  He has come to that street, and He continues to come to it.  He is the everlasting light that shines in and through the darkest street, place and heart.  As the carol says, every hope is met in Him, and every fear is overcome by Him.  The everlasting light that shines in the deepest darkness, the greatest despair, the most staggering impossibility. They are all met in Him.....right now.
     We are but a few days from the fullness of Christmas.  This may be the best of times, the worst of times, or maybe both at the same time.  Whatever the time, now is the time to come to Bethlehem.  The street you're on may be total darkness, but as you take that step of faith, His everlasting light will shine.  It may cover only one step at a time, but it will take you to Him.  Indeed, you'll be with Him before you even complete the first step.  Everything, and I mean everything, is met in Him.  Your "Bethlehem" calls to you.  Will you come?

Blessings, and a blessed Christmas to you,
Pastor O