15th December - Joy to the World?

     Friday night was another time of singing carols like Joy to the World, this time it was at Festival Place outside of Starbucks here  in Basingstoke. A time to sing of the joys of Christmas and the excitement that comes along with the season. There have been many other times of singing carols as well whether it's at home along with Spotify, in the village square, around a neighbourhood, or during carol services as well. Many of the carols that we sing are about joy, gladness, being merry, hosanna in excelsis. Not all carols though deal only with joy, some deal with the despair felt before the King comes, the yearning for God to be with us like O Come O Come Emmanuel. Check out the striking words of the third verse of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear as they read: (Listen to version by Sixpence None the Richer below)

Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long;

Beneath the angel strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong

And man, at war with man, hears not

The love song which they bring;

O hush the noise, ye men of strife, 

And hear the angels sing

     Those lyrics don't paint the rosiest picture, woes, sin, strife, wrong, war that's all quite accurate to our world today. After arriving home buzzing from the evening of proclaiming the King in the open air I went to facebook and post after post wrote about a tragedy, people saying 'how could this happen' and once again it was either another shooting or bombing that had taken place. Very quickly joy turned to sadness, and of course confusion of 'why?. The Sandy Hook shooting was a different level for me, I remember so fondly having a classroom full of kids and putting myself in that situation of a gunmen running rampant around them sends a shiver up the spine. I think of my Mom who has taught little ones for 40 years or so and the horror of that situation if it were to happen at ECA. I thought of Rebecca and what it would be like at West Side if a shooter was roaming the halls, certainly not a joyous time. 

     Yesterday morning was such an interesting and eye-opening time as we handed out mince pies from the churches together in Overton outside of the Co-op grocery store and sang carols in the square. For those of you who don't know what mince pies they are little cakes with a spiced fruit filling and we put them in a bag along with an attractive card from the churches. It was so weird to say 'happy Christmas' to the shoppers leaving the store and sometimes getting the response of head down, no or simply no response at all. Personally I would think if it is being given away free almost all if not all would want to take them. It is the most wonderful time of the year, we are giving away a free piece of pie with no strings attached and often we were met with a frosty reception. It reminded me of the other day when I was handing out Christmas cards door to door on behalf of the churches and a guy came out from his back garden reached through the gate and moaned Merry Christmas back to me with all the vigour of a turtle told he'd have to run a 5K. 

     Why am I writing about this and in some respects making a deal? It's because in our lives there is a juxtaposition of joy and sadness that we deal with daily. During this season of Christmas it is not hard to find much joy, and on the other hand it is not difficult to find sorrow and sadness also. The highs of singing in the mall vs. the lows of the news of the Connecticut shooting, the highs of friends/family around the tree with presents and the lows of knowing there are so many who don't have those memorable times of Christmas morning. All of this has brought me to our adoption process and the joy/sadness, ups/downs that exist together in tension.
     For us there have been many ups, including the excitement of last February, the news of being approved, getting a gift of cash, the little chats that Rebecca and I have had throughout the year that nobody else has heard. In contrast there are lows, finding out that we were not chosen while in Indiana, not having any more news to dispell to people, essentitally not being chosen yet. It has gotten harder as the year has gone on, continuing to have to share with people that we don't have any news (for us that is reality and we are ok with it) for some hearing it they feel bad for us and assume that we are in bad place. That is not the case, we are in a waiting pattern, we're not the first and we'll not be the last. Not unlike the people whose cry was O Come O Come Emmanuel, they waited 400 years for a Messiah, as written before on this blog Abraham waited 25 years until Jacob came along. We carry on living with adoption on our hearts but not on our minds and remembering that the best things come to those who wait.