In The Bleak Mid-Winter

...and it is a bleak mid-winter, is it not?

"...hundreds of children were buried in mass graves..." as I sit and enjoy the laughter of my nieces and nephews who run and play...

I am reminded of Matthew 2, starting with verse 13...Herod's search and destroy mission. The innocent lives taken. Herod's quest was left unfinished, unfulfilled. The Christ-child was alive and well...safely tucked away in Egypt- the same Egypt that was once the scene of enslavement for God's people.

God dwells among us. Our advent is over and Christ has come. Unexplained, unexpected...in our own places of captivity. In the midst of this massacre.

And the presence of this Christ-child remains a mystery to me. I find myself crying out still- Come, Lord Jesus!