Ah, love. That love, budding as it does - the world in spring. From a landscape of hardened ground, rock, and ice comes this rejuvenation unknown. Where once our hearts were frigid, this effusive, continually effervescent, life springs forth. In trees and flowers and shrubs and grass and birds and bees, life pours out from within the earth. No more is it restrained by cold, restrained by time or circumstance, but these visages of truth, of a hope that shatters the ice, begin to glimmer in the distance. Verdant radiance, light from within, but all from without, shimmers between the leaves on freshly budding orchards and forests. As snow melts and the ice recedes, a new joy and exuberance begins to overtake it all. Nothing is left to death or boredom or monotony, but unexplained, unrestrained, uninhibited, euphonious melody explodes from the trees and floats through the breeze. The world is not bleak. It is awesome and beautiful, simple and subtle, powerful and pervasive. Where once our faces downcast cried, ‘Where is that pale reflection?’ Now our eyes with light explode, ‘Finally, I see and know.’

To you sweet love, oh, You Most High. Today I bring myself to You. With thanks and patience, to begin anew. With love and hope and faith, our hearts renewed.

Merry Christmas. May the light of love in all its myriad forms shine brightly through your life. May we always remember by whom and from what great depths we’ve all been saved.