Emmanuel

I've had many thoughts about Connecticut swirling in my head the last 12 hours. I wrote a rant to my mother, then copied it onto my blog here, then re-wrote it, and finally decided to not include it in either the email to my mom nor on my blog. It's now sitting safely in my journal, where it should probably stay.

So many thoughts... and my predominant thought is that, somehow, the message of Connecticut is not unrelated to the message of Christmas. I'm not talking about the commercial Christmas, nor the sappy sentimental Christmas. The true message of Christmas is not "Happiness and warm feelings to the world, because now God is on our side." Rather, it is "Joy to the world- joy, that mixture of contentment and peace that is produced through faith and remains unshakable in the midst of trial- because God has done the unthinkable in order to save us from the mess that we have made while trying to run our world without Him.

Yesterday at lunch, before I heard about the shooting, I was telling a friend that my family always lights up a giant cross on our silo for Christmas and Easter. I acknowledged that a cross is not a normal Christmas decoration, but I think it is a vital reminder. That is why Christmas is good news of great joy.

A friend posted a this link to Facebook, and I think the author did a fairly good job of summarizing at least a part of what I have been thinking:

http://www.joshlehman.com/thoughts/what-i-plan-to-tell-my-kids-at-dinner-tonight/