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| Photo by lauramusikanski at morguefile.com |
As my friends are hanging their lights and wrapping gifts for under the tree, I'm usually sitting at the piano, clunking out the notes of accompaniments I'm learning for my violin students. I get well acquainted with Christmas songs this way. My students choose their favorite pieces for recital, and I'm obligated to learn the piano parts.
One of the projects this year was to master "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." I worked through the jazz chords, which don't exactly fit in this classical musician's brain, but my heart kept whispering, "It's not. It's not the most wonderful time of the year." Everything hurts more at Christmastime, maybe because Christmas reminds us of what life ought to be.
I'm tempted to shut my eyes to the problems and build a wall around my heart so I don't feel the pain. Can't I pretend for one day that the world is white and filled with love, joy, and peace?
But Christmas won't let me do that because Christmas is about Jesus, the Light of the World. Jesus didn't enter the world as a pretty strand of colored lights hung on a tree. He entered as a floodlight that shows us everything we ought to be. He is the perfect picture of love, joy, and peace, even greater than the Christmas movies we watch and the songs we sing of perfect Christmases long ago. He sheds light on all the ugliness around us.
So I prayed the strangest Christmas prayer last night. I prayed that God would open my eyes to see evil for what it is and feel the pain it brings. I choose courage this Christmas, the courage it takes to keep my eyes open, to keep the light on. Only then can I be the heart and hands of God reaching out to my hurting world.
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." John 8:12 (NKJV)
