Joy! Joy! Joy! - How can it be?

Joy! Joy! Joy! That is what our culture says it is all to be about in these days of the Christmas season. What do you do with that message when you have grief to deal with? Are we just to leave it aside? Pretend it isn't there? Deny it?

This topic is on my mind because I presided at a funeral service today. It was a service of memory and hope for a parishioner. It had been a tough year for her with the death of her husband earlier in the year as well as with her own physical health even before that. She decided earlier this fall not to pursue treatment related to her recent diagnosis. As she and I talked about things, she approached our conversations with tremendous honesty and clarity. When she had something to say, she said it. When she had questions, she asked them. When I didn't offer an easy answer, she asked more questions. Tonight as I write these thoughts, I feel as if she shared a gift with me over these past weeks. She invited me into her struggles and pain and grief. She also invited me to know her hope.

I've been thinking about hope a lot lately - particularly as it relates to the coming of the Christ child. How does God in our midst - God with us - give us hope? How is it real to us? Is it something that we can touch and feel or even see? Or is it nothing more than a nice idea to hang onto?

As we talked about hope last week at the Elders' Circle (a time when the elders gather for prayer and discussion), one of the elders suggested that perhaps we have to face adversity before we can really know what to look for or know what it is that we are looking for. Maybe sharing hope means standing with another and holding her hand as she stares into the abyss??
I know that doesn't fully capture the essence of hope but I do think it says something about hope's essence.

Today wasn't Joy! Joy! Joy! But I find myself this night with a deeper sense of hope even if I can't quite describe it well as my ramblings above suggest. May hope be with you as God is with us always!