FROM THE PULPIT: GOD IS WITH US THROUGH IT ALL

One night this week one of our kids came to us and said that she was having trouble getting to sleep because she was thinking about the drill that they had at school that day about what to do if someone should come into the room with a gun. I was glad that the school was being diligent about the matter and then very sad that we live in a world where kids have to know about such things.

Advent 1997 began with the birth of septuplets and the brutal murder of three teenagers at a high school in Kentucky. The first Christmas was also the birth of a baby followed by the slaughter of innocents when King Herod ordered the death of Hebrew children.

New life was given and life was taken. A miracle of joy was celebrated and a terrible tragedy was mourned.

The point is that it was not a perfect world that Christ was born into either. The world of Jesus' birth was the same as the world is today; a mixture of good news and bad news.

Somewhere along the line, however, we have gotten the notion that Christmas time should be a time of pure and unmitigated joy.

I am increasingly aware of the many people who dread the holidays because they feel the pressure of "getting happy."

What I celebrate at Christmas is the promise that God is making the world that perfect place and the hope that the day will come.

Also, until God's perfect world comes, I celebrate the Christmas message that into the world such as it is, God chose to be born.

Jesus has conquered the world by sharing it and all of its imperfection with us. The victory of the ages was an inside job!

I believe that the miracle of Christmas is not so much that the world changes in any significant or perceptible way but that the great God of heaven has chosen to share his world with us.

At a breakfast Bible study at a local restaurant with a group of friends one morning this week the conversation was very similar to the one that we had with our child the night before.

We spoke about the tragedy at Heath High School. Since we were grown-ups we were able to go on and make an even longer list of things to be appalled about and fearful of (you have to have some experience to be able to do that).

Then we decided to change our conversation and make a different list. We began to list all the ways that it seemed to us that God was redeeming the tragedy: organ donation, and the fact that the young people were even in a prayer group in the first place at their school, and the sign that someone saw in the news from students that spoke of forgiveness.

It was possible for us to see God at work. We decided there are still plenty of reasons to be concerned this Christmas time but there are also plenty of reasons to feel encouraged.

The world is not a perfect place and tragedy apparently will not take a vacation just because it is Christmas time. The good news of Christmas though is that when our world rejoices God is with us. When our world mourns God is with us. The good news is God is with us.