A Story for our Desperate Hearts: Love Came Down

The older two children dig out the advent calendar from the Rubbermaid and hang it on a nail under the clock that keeps on ticking, while the Little One wakes from a nap hot with fever. The countdown begins while her temperature creeps up.

I'm not ready for this season to begin. But they say time waits for no man.

I refuse to venture out into the hustle and bustle. I say no to the cookie exchange. We've had early snowstorms, and we're late with our decorations. I've got laundry strung on the banister instead of garland, only one batch of gingerbread baked and already eaten, and I dream of running from it all as fast I can right into the new year.

It's not that I'm all "Bah, humbug", but there's been something in the air that tells me something is going to be different this year. I just can't quite put my finger on it.

Heartaches and hurting relationships, boundaries and brokenness have a way of stealing happiness, but there is a joy that refuses to be snuffed out.

Black Fridays and burdens, never-ending pressures and promises not kept leave us grimacing, but not without grace.

The Sunrise from on high has set His foot on this soil.

He came as a babe, born in a stable, under the cover of darkness.

That we, who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, might be set on the bright path of peace.

There is a blindness in this world and only the Morning Light can restore our sight.

There is a debt in our lives and only the root and the descendant of David can redeem us from our sin.

There is a darkness in our souls and only the God of Salvation can renew in us a right spirit.

There is a depravity in humanity and only the Messiah can reconcile us to Himself.

Love came down.



My children question why they have friends who still believe in Santa as well as friends who blatantly say this season is pagan.

They see this strange dichotomy as Christmas lights shimmer in the darkest nights.

From one extreme to the other.



But what if we see Christmas as the love story that it really is.

"Christ came at just the right time."

God went to the extreme and His Son left the heights of heaven and Love came down.

In the children's storybook Bible we read the good news together:

" . . . A love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne ~ everything ~ to rescue the ones he loves . . . The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them . . . And at the centre of the Story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle ~ the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture." {Sally Lloyd-Jones, 'The Jesus Storybook Bible'}

When we put the puzzle pieces together we prepare our hearts to see the Prince of Peace who has come to guide our feet in the way of peace.

Our hearts are dark and the only One who can create them anew is the Creator God who called light out of darkness.

Who created our hearts to bear the image of Him.

Who came as the Light into the darkness.

We count down the days. And we gaze up at the grace of it all.



There is still time to prepare our hearts to see.

As the fever breaks and the day dawns, and we are waiting for the coming, the Morning Star rises in our hearts, and opens our eyes afresh to the truth:

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and 

sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

There's a song in the air, and a beautiful story of the Sun of Righteousness who gives us light.