As I sit in my office writing these words, I hear a child crying above me in
our Early Arts School. The sound is less irritating to me and more
symbolic of the cries from within my own heart. We grown-ups cry but
sometimes we do it differently than a young child who screams out in
agony as tears of sadness drop down their cheeks. I don’t know why the
child is crying but I suspect it’s because she didn’t get her way or perhaps,
she just doesn’t feel good. It might be that she misses her mother and or
father. Those of you with children and grandchildren know more about
what makes them cry than I do.
If you listen above the sound of your own life, you’ll hear the cries of
countless people. Tune into the news and hear the cry of the people of
Ukraine mixed with the cries of the people in Gaza and Israel. It doesn’t
stop there unless you change the channel and soon there’s a symphony of
heartache conducted by the news anchor. Our world is filled with cries of
hurt, suffering, and grief. Right now, I suspect you’re crying too but have it
masked well for those around you. We learn as adults to hide our tears
and agony and find ourselves sometimes suppressing every emotion we
have so we can cope. But when we open the pages of scripture, we
discover the hardcore expressions of lament offered to God in the hope of
deliverance.
My father, who didn’t believe in sparing the rod would sometimes add
insult to injury by telling us children to “dry that up or I’ll give you
something to cry about.” He meant well but that was a call to muffle our
emotions that expressed our pain and suffering. It has been said that we
aren’t really present if we aren’t here emotionally. God, our father never
intended for us to pretend nothing or nobody bothers us. There’s a lot to
be bothered by these days and an appropriate spiritual expression is to cry
out to God. Advent is about waiting but it is also about active waiting and
that means joining our cries with those of the Early Arts’ child who has yet
to find comfort but searches for it with each breath, groan, and travail.
Advent among other things is our hearts crying out to God who comes to
us as Emmanuel, God with us. That God who is with us meets our cries
with one of his own as Mary and Joseph place the Christ Child in the
manger. One carol I love to sing and think of as more a children’s carol is
so sweet and might be considered a lullaby. You know the one I’m
thinking of... “Away in a manger no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid
down his sweet head. The stars in the sky looked down where he lay, the
little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.” I love those words. But the next
words, while sweet too, are not really truthful. “The cattle are lowing, the
baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes;” I do think little
Lord Jesus cries, with us and for us and in doing so, validates our
emotions of sadness, loneliness, heartache, separation, fear and even
anger. The next words sing about the one who watches over us all with
these words... “I love thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky and stay
by my cradle till morning is nigh.” You get the idea of God watching over
the world that cradles us all.
The child above me in the Early Arts School just stopped crying and I can
only believe she found comfort both within and without. May it be so for
us grown-up children too as we sing: “Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee
to stay close by me forever and love me, I pray; bless all the dear
children in thy tender care, and fit us for heaven to live with thee there."
Happy Advent,
Pastor Dean