jena meyerpeter

Because December comes, I will be awake.

I will proclaim God’s glory in the light of day because December nights are long. Roll down the windows, shake your slumbered senses awake, and remember the joy of living. December has a way of rattling our false sense of permanency, doesn’t it? We turn over our calendars to the 12^th month and our seasonal spirits realize an end awaits. Days draw to a close, weeks roll by in blurs, months and seasons pass, and years end. The gravity of time pulls on our eternally designed spirits and we remember loved ones who have come and gone in fresh waves of grief. We long to celebrate without reservation, but our hearts reserve room for what is broken and lost because justice arises with hope. To be awake is to live aware that time is still your option.  It’s a wonderful life right here and now if we’re awake enough to realize it.

Because December comes, I will live in hope.

I will proclaim God’s faithfulness so I can rest when the lights fade. Winter has a way of quieting our spirits. Cold, long nights keep us huddled and still inside our sheltered places. We reminisce over lasting memories of pain and gain because those are the starry moments still illuminated in the dark. It’s there we remember our worth apart from opinion. It’s where we contemplate if our peace surpasses transient circumstances. The brevity of a sunlit winter day invites us to keep time with nature’s created rhythm; slowing to shed a few layers of obligation so we will freely bloom at the break of spring. Dormancy, though it appeared to be a death, bursts into new life and fruit is born from barren places.

Because December comes, I will live under grace.

I will proclaim God’s underserved favor so I can rejoice when life unravels. Darkness has a way of fooling our senses, doesn’t it? It’s the oldest trickery in the book, this pervasive darkness instilling fear and panic. It blankets our long-range vision and disables our emotional intelligences whispering brittle promises of now and never to our easily gratified souls. I live revived by Grace because though I know December comes every year, I still get caught naïve to its demands. I will fail, have faults, and flail but grace falls on me even then covering it all. What are truths more certain than December’s arrival and passing? It is the grace that surrounds and abounds through it all.

Because December ends, but is never the end….may you rest in your darkest nights, know peace in your winter days, and grace in your New Year. 

“But what will you do when the end comes?” Jeremiah 5:31