“… And then, just when everything is bearing down on us
to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it,
the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong,
and that what we take to be evil and dark
is really good and light because it comes from God.
Our eyes are at fault, that is all.
God is in the manger, wealth in poverty,
light in darkness, succor in abandonment.
No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us,
they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed
as love and rules the world and our lives.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
**********
“I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all.
And that, of course, is the message of Christmas.
We are never alone.
Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest,
the world seemingly most indifferent.
For this is still the time God chooses.”
Taylor Caldwell