I was reading this morning from the book, A Pilgrim People by John H. Westerhoff
III about the Nativity narrative. He
wrote, “We need to focus on the good.
The problem of evil that most of us worry about may be the wrong
problem. The really difficult problem is
not why there is any evil, but why there is any good in the world. That small flicker of good is the Christmas
mystery, the mystery of possibility that might grasp us if we don’t surrender
to secular celebrations of Christmas and escapist rituals that can creep into
even the holy dark of midnight Eucharist or the holy light of Eucharist at dawn.” (p. 54).
I have quite a few people comment about the way I see the
world: that the picture is often incomplete, that people are more than what is
happening in the moment; that there either has been or is good in everything—it
just depends how we perceive it.
Westerhoff goes on to say “The impossible possibility, God is always
entering our lives and our world to deliver and to save us. The problem is in our perceiving; our faith
is fragile. It needs to be refreshed…” (p.
55). This is the way I see the world, my faith, my understanding when things
are so messed up and hard to comprehend:
God is ever with us, holding us gently when we do not go gently.
Oh Savior of the world, help me to always try to find the
good in life, even when it seems the world around me is struggling with the
evils that persist in the world. Let me
be a light in the darkness, celebrating your presence in the midst of it
all. Hold us, rock us, soothe us through
all this life, in all things, whispering the words of hope and love that will
bring us closer to you. Amen.