Blue Christmas- Scrambling in the Dark

A lot of things can make us weary, and sometimes our weariness can feel like we are scrambling in the dark, moving about with cautious steps, waiting for someone to turn on the light.

I recently had the privilege of going on a sunrise hike. A sunrise hike in theory is a great idea as you get to witness the beauty of the sunrise. But in order to do it, you have to start when it is dark, when it is pitch black.

And so my friend and I began. She with her headlamp, and I with nothing but a cell phone light. The path didn’t wind slowly mind you. In the dark we sorta missed the warning sign for the trail. The path started straight up. I was at such an incline that I couldn’t turn around for fear of falling backwards. And so there I was like an idiot on all fours on the side of a cliff scrambling in the dark.

I couldn’t see a thing. I knew the light would arrive, but I couldn’t see it yet.

The season of Advent or arrival is a season that starts in the dark. It doesn’t shy away from the dark. It faces the weariness, grief, hopelessness and longing of our world in full force. And after facing all of that, it reminds us of an arrival, or as Isaiah promises “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light- those who lived in a land of deep darkness- on them light has shined.”

Advent promises our weary souls that what begins in the dark will end with a light in which the darkness cannot overcome. Advent little by little welcomes the dawn when God turns on the light by sending the light of the world to us. Emmanuel, God with us.

God with us even in our weariness, especially in our weariness.

Advent is the promise of all the light we cannot see. The voice and music and promise of hope and freedom that rings out among the rubble of our lives.

Visiting a man on hospice with the senior pastor. He set up a tree and started decorating it. And then in his beautiful voice he started singing “Blue Christmas.” And there in the space of what felt like the end, the spark of hope glowed.

Whatever the rubble is of your life in this season. Whoever you are missing. Whatever has you feeling blue, God is with you in it. And I want to invite you to light a candle. And if you would like, I invite you to write on a piece of wood the weariness you are holding this season and place it on the altar.