Thursday, December 12-Peace

Romans 8:22-25

“Fall back,” is what the clocks tell us in November. Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like 7pm now feels like midnight? It never fails, as the night creeps in earlier and earlier, it also feels metaphorically like things are heavier and light is more difficult to find. This week, I’m grieving the loss of a young friend who tragically died earlier this month. I imagine you may be laboring through the night with some people or heavy things as well.  

When we consent to love, we consent to the risk of hurt: of laboring for, laboring with, laboring against. 

Peace invites us to “name the night” (as Stephanie Duncan Smith so aptly frames in her book “Even After Everything”), and to know we’re not alone in it. Peace gently invites us to remember that what we see is not the only truth, for when we hope for what we don’t see, we “eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”  

In the waiting, we also get to trust Jesus, our kind Companion, and to participate with the One who labors with us and promises to bring new life especially when we can’t see it yet. 

On December 22, the light WILL begin to lengthen again…and day by day, minute by minute will bring us to Spring forward again.  

Peace is with you this season, in the night and in the day.

May you have the courage to notice and name the night of your labor.

May you trust our friend Jesus who labors with you, restores imaginations beyond what we can see, loves despite the risk so that we can too, and instead of isolating invites us into a life of expansion and hope.

AUBREY KLEINFELD