The news lately has reported that the extreme cold in the east caused havoc for many travelers endeavoring to spend Christmas with loved ones. Despite the rain and chill, we have been rather blessed weather-wise. Perhaps some of you may be yearning for a white Christmas but I imagine many travelers back east would wish otherwise!
Every winter I am drawn to one of my favorite poems, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. Drawn by the beauty of a gentle snow fall, much like we get nearly every winter here on Whidbey Island, the rider wants to sit still, watch and listen, even if his horse thinks it queer to stop without a farmhouse near…but he knows that he must move on. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”
Someone is relying on him to keep his word. We live in an age when promises in politics, business, even relationships evaporate as quickly as a snowflake hitting a warm window- pane. Christmas on the other hand reminds us of a promise God kept long ago to liberate us from the darkness of sin.
Two thousand years ago, like a great star, Jesus came down from heaven and lit up the darkness of our world. As John tells us in the opening verses of his gospel, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness had not overcome it.” To this day, the darkness of sin has not managed to turn off the light of God’s love in our midst, despite the pervasiveness of evil, hate and cruelty and the high cost many followers have paid as martyrs sharing the light of Christ with others.
The Christmas image many of us have of Jesus is that of a light shining in the darkness, which is why festive lights of many colors decorate trees and our landscape. This image has meant a world of difference for some people when they are feeling very much alone in their world of darkness.
The image of light dispelling the darkness took on special meaning for Victor Frankl when he was incarcerated in a Nazi Concentration Camp. Early one morning, he and other prisoners were digging in the cold hard ground. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he writes, “The dawn was gray around us; gray was the sky above; gray the snow in the pale light of dawn; gray the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and gray their faces…I struggled to find a reason for my suffering, my slow dying.”
As he struggled in the miserable cold, Frankl became totally convinced that there was a reason, even when none made sense. Then he described what happened next, “At that moment a light was lit in a distant farmhouse, which stood on the horizon as if it were painted there, in the midst of the miserable gray.”
At that moment, a line, which we heard moments ago in the Gospel came to mind, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness had never put it out.” That experience gave Frankl hope, changing his entire prison life, whereas before all he had experienced was despair.
When Jesus entered our darkened world, so did hope. Until he came, countless people found themselves struggling to find reason for their suffering, for their slow death. Once Jesus shared the Good news of God’s love, mercy and compassion, people could see that there was an antidote for their suffering, even if they could not still see why the world is filled with so much pain. They learned by his example that they could make a difference in an indifferent world.
Every Christmas we recall this moment in time but we also celebrate an ongoing reality that Jesus is born into the world through us for Christmas is God’s invitation for each one of us to be for our world what Jesus was for his world: a beam of light in the midst of darkness, a ray of hope in the midst of despair. God’s word takes on flesh through us: our love, our sharing, our forgiveness and caring for one another.
Like the woods on a snowy evening, Christmas is a time when we want to sit still, watch and listen for nothing is ordinary at this moment. But like the rider, we know that we must move on. Before long, our lives will be back to normal. With our usual busy schedules, we could easily forget what Christmas was all about.
However, if we want to rid our world of its darkness, then we have promises to keep ourselves, namely promises to bring the light of Christ to others in our midst yet promises that some of us are not inclined to keep, convinced that whatever we do wouldn’t make much difference anyway. But they do make a difference for someone. Another of Robert Frost’s lasting lines comes to mind here. In the Road Not Taken, he wrote, “Two roads diverge in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Jesus comes at Christmas, inviting us to take the road less traveled by, the path paved by the convictions of countless Christians who have gone before us, doing what they could to dispel the darkness of our world with the light of Christ. To the extent that we heed the invitation of Christmas, to that extent will the world receive the gifts of Christmas: peace on earth and goodwill toward all. God is counting on us to make that real, not just today, but everyday of our lives.