San Antonio in the Winter

Everyone was talking about the weather yesterday. "A hard freeze will be followed by up to one inch of snow tomorow," said the weathercaster.

Well, it sure was cold this morning, soneone claimed they saw flurries, but of course there was no snow. Snow is a rarity here in S.A. But darkness isn't.

It seems we have an overabundance of cloudy days and beautiful S.A. shivers in a kind of early and late dusk this time of the year. There were only a few hours of sunlight today but by the time I took note of it, grey evening began to slip into the River City at about 4PM.

I usually don't like to talk about the weather but I have a reason and it is because of the season (sorry). It is Advent, a compelling season that reminds us that although things are in shadows now, the light is coming. Of course in astrological terms, I think Dec.21 is the winter solstice. Don't hold me to that date but I am pretty close. Christians are keeping watch for another
date.

We Christians watch for the coming of the light out of the darkness because the Son of God
called Himelf the Light of the 'World.

Read John's Gospel and you'll discover that from chapter one until the end someone is coming out of darknes into the light. Who can forget the long and important story of the man born blind
who sees but then has to go search for the Person of the Light? The sanhedrin officials are blind to the meaning of the miracle, though they knew that Isaiah had predicted a messiah who would
open the eyes of the blind. It would be one of the trademarks of the messiah.

Even in that first chapter, the author says that although the light came into the world, the people loved the darkness. He's talking about the darkness of sin. How is it possible to love your sin if it leads you into darkness? But, isn't it strange, we have to love sin in some way otherwise we would never choose to do it. We choose to create our own murky garden within.

On Christmas we will hear the words read from Isaiah: "The people who walked in darknes have seen a great light."

Even now at 8:30 pm in the darkness there are stars up there. Flickering stars in the dark, tiny rustling lights in San Antonio on an cold Advent evening.

Come, Lord Jesus!