Peace in the midst of darkness

I brought canvases and some paint into the "classroom" for Bridging the Gap last week, to paint with the kids before promise group, and then the christmas party. I thought it would be a good idea to have the kids paint what PEACE looked like to them - what did it make them think of, or see? Most of the kids got the idea, though i had to explain it multiple times as they continued to trickle into the room. One painted a scene from the beach in Jamaica, one painted a picture of a "benjamin" saying "its all about the money" and one sat in his own sort of world through the hour, painting and using charcoal - creating quite an impressive, although a bit offsetting piece of art.

There were large splotches of dull colors of green and black and grey with words such as "confusion" "anger" "depressed" and then in the midst of them all, sort of off in a corner was the peace sign.

As i watched, and thought about it for a bit, I realized, isn't that what Christmas is all about? it is about peace - the prince of peace - entering into the midst of fear and anger and darkness and confusion... oppressive rule, poverty, genocide. Jesus was born into this broken world, and he brought light and hope - not completely eliminating the darkness... yet. His plan this time around is beyond my understanding. All i know is he walked among the broken, the sick and the needy. And I think if we want to find him today, to find where he is "arriving" - it is in that same spot. We probably don't have to look far - not even beyond ourselves to find brokenness. But there are others hurting, and needs far greater where we can go and join in the work of redemption that Jesus is doing here now - and the ultimate victory WILL come one day.

check out this post for Advent written today - along a similar vein: http://cotcboston.org/advent/2010/12/23/day-26-christmas-carol-undone-by-sam-albertson

I have been thinking about this for some time. Entering the darkness is hard, yet it is where we find Jesus at work - we find we are given the privilege of being his hands and feet! and we find the enemy is not happy! He would much rather us keep running into "safe" winter wonderland scenes... forgetting the real, hands dirty with down-to-earth love and mercy that Christmas truly is about!

Merry Christmas! Emmanuel - God with us!