Prayer Request
Please join with me in praying for a dear friend who is undergoing treatment for cancer.
Learning to See Christmas and Holy Saturday: How Stories Form Us
Prologue I was setting up the Christmas crib with my five-year-old grandson. As we placed the figures, he stopped and looked at the scene for a moment. Then he said, quietly, "This really isn't very joyful for baby Jesus." He was not confused. He was attentive. Taken on its own, the crib is not a joyful image. A child lies in a feeding trough. It becomes joyful when one knows what has gone before and what is to come; as one understands the full pattern of Eden, the Cross, and the Resurrection; the promise, cost, and vindication. The Nativity is joyful. The angels announce "good news of great joy," the shepherds rejoice, and the Magi worship. But it is a paradoxical joy, a joy in anticipation, precisely because it's joy despite poverty, vulnerability, and impending persecution. Joy is not deferred until Easter. It is joy under the shadow of the cross. It is the Father's love breaking into the world, the Word made flesh, already Emmanuel. God ha...
