When we look at the history of the world there is plenty of winter. There is also braveness, kindness and holiness. There is a St. Francis, a Martin Luther King, Jr., a Mother Teresa. There is also Christmas, also New Life. I can be tempted to despair about the world and about myself.
Despair is just that, a temptation.
It is a piece of the truth masquerading as the whole. The truth is that I have a very different life with God and with you brothers and sisters than I might have had if I had not taken those two words away with me that night, thirty years ago. Healing and holiness have touched my life. For all the struggle, what different hopes for further healing and holiness I have now than I would have ever had. The promise of Christmas is not instant or even easy victory, but New Life in the midst of the old struggle and victory in the end.