Dear Reader:

When I woke up yesterday I felt about as “foggy” as the dense fog that had settled into the early morning mist. I had fallen sound asleep on the sofa and woken up around 12:30 Monday night (er…Tuesday morning) ….gotten up, turned off the lights, and gone to bed…only to lay there staring at the ceiling.

So I answered some emails and messed around on the computer until about 1:30 and finally fell asleep sometime there after. So yesterday morning I was trying to figure out what time it was ….with no sun and the dense fog blocking the natural guides to time-telling.

It was about 7:30 and I was heading over to Mt. P to keep Eva Cate for the day…her pre-school was closed for parent conferences…the fog stayed thick until I crossed the last bridge on I-526 and suddenly the sun’s rays broke through the low lying clouds. Immediately everything seemed brighter and more cheerful.

In Our Daily Bread- Finding Peace at Christmas (Christmas devotionals) the famous artist (Dutch artist Rembrandt) is deemed the “master of light and darkness” in his paintings…especially in  one of his most famous: The Adoration of the Shepherds. 

In the painting the darkened stable in Bethlehem portrays two shepherds kneeling beside the manger while other people stand farther away. One man holds a lantern, but the brightest light shines from the Christ-Child, illuminating those gathered closest to him.

Seven centuries before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah used an image of light and shadows to foretell the coming of the Savior. “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine…For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.” (Isaiah 9: 2-6).

Each person may see a different story in the painting but perhaps each of us is represented somewhere in the stable. Are we kneeling in worship, standing back in hesitation and doubt, or hiding from the light, that like a thick fog penetrates the darkness?

Christmas invites us to step out of the shadows of doubt, fogginess, and darkness to allow the light of Christ to shine into our hearts.

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So until tomorrow…Let us understand that faith in Christ is not a leap into the deep fog of darkness…it’s a step into the light.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

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Eva Cate and I had a “girl” day yesterday….we shopped, picked up some trinkets, had fun making white moustaches with our high chocolate/whipped cream drinks at Barnes and Noble. We finished off our wonderful day going to see Disney’s “The Good Dinosaur” (I bawled at the end like “Old Yeller”) and finally painted finger nails…Giving each loved one a day to play before Christmas is quite a gift that keeps on giving.