Redeeming Grace

It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas. There is an almost imperceptible tensioning in the air. This year it feels like an exam I have to pass. But this year there is to be an ineffable absence. Nobody walks in grief with you. That you have do alone. Or alone with God.  It’s is going to be horrible.

I am not going to be feeling joyful and triumphant and much less  keen to deck the halls with boughs of holly.    I am going to need more Silent Nights than Merry Gentlemen to get through this. 

The birth of Jesus is humanity’s shout of hope into the void. I want to hear, at the very least, an echo. And for that I need to be still.