{"id":466,"date":"2020-12-17T01:10:45","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T07:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/?p=466"},"modified":"2020-12-18T01:23:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T07:23:18","slug":"the-darkest-days-of-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/?p=466","title":{"rendered":"The darkest days of winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"From Christmas Eve, 2003<\/em><\/p>\n

Each day grows shorter, darker, and colder. Our world turns brown and gray: brown grass, brown leaves, gray sky, gray lake, gray rain.<\/p>\n

How do we bear the growing gloom of December days?<\/p>\n

Spurred by advertising, Christmas grabs our attention.<\/p>\n

Early sunsets mean more time to enjoy Christmas lights in our neighborhood. Each evening as I drive home from work, another bejeweled home twinkles through the darkness.<\/p>\n

With holiday preparations and festivities, we don\u2019t focus on the coming winter.<\/p>\n

After Christmas, we are on the home stretch. Each day is a few minutes longer following the winter solstice on Dec. 21. The weather gets colder, but it\u2019s more likely to be crisp and dry instead of gray and rainy. In just five or six weeks, crocus will peek through the dead leaves, bringing hope of spring.<\/p>\n

Some scholars believe that Jesus wasn\u2019t born in December. They cite the passage in Luke about \u201cshepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.\u201d It would be too cold to sleep in the fields, they say.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m grateful that Christmas ended up in December. It seems only right.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Faith Wylie designed and made this Advent banner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Isaiah wrote \u201cThe people who walk in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness \u2013 on them light has shined.\u201d<\/p>\n

How appropriate that the celebration of the light of the world comes at winter\u2019s darkest moment.<\/p>\n

John tells us, \u201cThe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people are skeptical of jailhouse conversions and other sinners who have \u201cfound God.\u201d But I think those events show human nature. We don\u2019t think we need God when everything is going well. We wait until a dark hour before we seek the light.<\/p>\n

The true test, though, comes later. Will the jailhouse conversion hold up once the prisoner is free to rejoin society with all its temptations?<\/p>\n

Will we stay focused on the light after the storm is over?<\/p>\n

Christmas is a baby step on our spiritual walk \u2013 just adore the Christ child. Later we are called to take up our cross and follow.<\/p>\n

Tonight, though, we simply enjoy the light that has dispelled the darkness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Christmas Eve, 2003 Each day grows shorter, darker, and colder. Our world turns brown and gray: brown grass, brown leaves, gray sky, gray lake, gray rain. How do we bear the growing gloom of December days? Spurred by advertising, Christmas grabs our attention. Early sunsets mean more time to enjoy Christmas lights in our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,4],"tags":[87,8],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-faiths-reflections","category-blog-post","tag-christmas","tag-faith-wylie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyliecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}