Advent Reflection | Wednesday, December 2

Today’s A Weary World Rejoices story comes from Liz Deterding:

l love words. I love examining them, researching their origins, translating them into other languages, taking them apart, rearranging them in different ways. Now that we can’t be with each other physically, I’ve relied on words to connect. I’ve read them in books and poems, exchanged them with pen pals, shared them in countless Zoom calls, and laid them bare with trusted friends in Wine & Word and loneliness conversations.

It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that my favorite nativity story comes from the gospel of John. I love how both epic and intimate John can be. His story doesn’t start in a barn in Bethlehem, but at the beginning of all things, with everything coming into being through the Word, who was “life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

As I’m writing this, we are approaching the darkest part of the year, and this one has already been full of anxiety, frustration, and loss. But so many words shared with me this year; stories, confessions, and encouragement; words from conversations, readings, and sermons; have been “thrills of hope” and have given me life (as the kids say). They’ve helped me find joy in weariness and light in darkness. If you are weary, my hope is that you can find joy in these words, and in each other, too.

John 1:1, 4-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

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