Welcome to the Advent edition of Fridays with Froehlichs.

Today happens to be the winter solstice. After today, darkness is in retreat with the coming of the light -- the long night is coming to an end. Perhaps in ancient days this story written in the heavens made it a perfect time on earth to celebrate the coming of the Light who would banish the darkness forever.

O, Come! O, Come, Emmanuel!

-----The Coming

-----And God held in his hand
-----A small globe.  Look he said.
-----The son looked.  Far off,
-----As through water, he saw
-----A scorched land of fierce
-----Colour.  The light burned
-----There; crusted buildings
-----Cast their shadows: a bright
-----Serpent, A river
-----Uncoiled itself, radiant
-----with slime.
----------On a bare
-----Hill a bare tree saddened
-----The sky.  many People
-----Held out their thin arms
-----To it, as though waiting
-----For a vanished April
-----To return to its crossed
-----Boughs.  The son watched
-----Them.  Let me go there, he said.

----------RS Thomas

-----“Winter Solstice”

-----“This is the solstice, the still point of the sun,
-----its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking,
-----where the past lets go of and becomes the future;
-----the place of caught breath,
-----the door of a vanished house left ajar.
------------Margaret Atwood, Eating Fire

This Advent season I announced to Steve that we were going to rely more on candles for evening hours.  Life has been rushing forward for weeks now, each day serving up its own haphazard menu of surprises.   To borrow the words of Idaho writer, Stephen Kamm, “I feel hollowed out.”  Somehow, amidst the unpredictable, I have needed to find still space.  The twinkling candles have been working their magic, night after night, inviting me to pause and ponder the light.  As John writes,  “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

-----The Felgild Compline

-----Calm me, O Lord, as you stilled the storm.
-----Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm.
-----Let all the tumult within me cease.
-----Enfold me, Lord, in Your peace.

-----The peace of all peace
-----be mine this night
-----in the name of the Father,
-----the Son,
-----and the Holy Spirit.
-----Amen.

-----O Oriens

-----O Dayspring,
-----splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness
-----Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness
-----and the shadow of death

-----First light and then first lines along the east
-----To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
-----As though behind the sky itself they traced
-----The shift and shimmer of another river
-----Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
-----The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.
-----Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
-----Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
-----So every trace of light begins a grace
-----In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
-----Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
-----“Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream
-----For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
-----Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking.”
----------
-----But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise,
-----with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
------(Malachi 4:2)

----------Malcolm Guite, Waiting on the Word

BEHOLD

David Brooks, in his new book How to Know a Person, quotes therapist and author Mary Pipher, "To be able to understand people and be present for them in their experience -- that's the most important thing in the world." Brooks argues that to know someone, we have to see them. We have to behold them. That is, not merely to observe them, but to know something of their story and how they experience life in the world. In fact we must be willing to enter their stories and the world as they know it.

When Isaiah foretold the birth of Jesus, he said, "Behold, a virgin will conceive." Behold. That is, this thing that is going to happen will be seen. If we have eyes to see, we will behold him for who he is: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. In that seeing, as John says, we will be changed. When we see him, when we behold him, we will become like him somehow through the very act of seeing him, of being in his unveiled presence.

God has always helped us to see him that we might behold with worship, joy, humility, and gratitude: in all that he has created, in the pillars of cloud and fire, in the word from the mountain, in the drama of the Tabernacle and Temple. But nothing compares to what we behold in the manger. About 30 years later Jesus will say that if we have seen him we have seen the Father. So, come behold the face of God.

But there is more to behold. When God steps into our world as one of us, when we see him as a flesh and blood person, we realize that he is saying what our hearts most deeply long to hear: "I want to know you. I want to be present in your life. I want to love you. I want to be in your world."

Our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers all want to be known and seen, not ignored or dismissed, not categorized or caricatured, not reduced to a one-word description or an internet meme. How, then, can we love them and let them know that we see them? Do we not do what Jesus did? We step into their stories. We ask questions. We listen. We are curious. We listen. As David Brooks suggests, we want to illuminate them.

How can we do that? 

Re-enacting the Incarnation in every day life, in our labor and in our relationships, in our families, churches, businesses, and communities, is risky business. It requires the sometimes terrifying transparency of being known, of being seen, often in ways we wish could stay hidden. 

But Jesus has disarmed that threat to our pride and ego. As Peter confesses to Jesus by the lake after the Resurrection, "Lord you know everything there is to know about me." With Peter we can say, "You see me, and nothing is hidden from you, and I don't need to hide or be afraid. The Father sees me with your robe upon my back and your crown upon my head. Because of your love he beholds your glory in me. Therefore I can do what you have done. I can live with courage and the comfort of knowing you have you eyes always upon me. I can step into the world and into the stories of the people I am loving."

But all this begins with the invitation of the ancient prophecy fulfilled through Mary.

Come, let us behold him.
Come, let us adore him.
Christ, the Lord.

We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor. 3:18)

"Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." (Lk. 2:15)

Serving in South Africa

We've been extended an invitation to travel to South Africa in 2024 to serve students at the Univ of Stellenbosh and the community of Christ Church in Stellenbosch. We're planning a 2-3 week visit, and we hope to purchase airline tickets in January as the Lord provides. Click here to get details.

Philip Yancey reflects on the account of Pastor Hanns Lilje, a prisoner in Buchenwald prison camp:  "On that memorable Christmas Eve of 1944, in a moment of 'sentimental softness' the SS commandant removed the chains of a violinist awaiting execution and allowed him to play in the large vaulted hall of the prison." Click here to continue reading.

Family Updates

It's hard for us to believe it, but the picture above is proof. Hayden, our oldest grandson, is a senior in high school this year. He's planning to be off to college in the fall, probably the Univ of Buffalo to study communications.

This fall, after 18 months of bureaucratic hoop-jumping, Medicare finally approved injectible meds for Sheryl's migraines. They've been working. Hallelujah! We applied for and were granted financial assistance from the manufacturer, but that assistance has to be renewed for 2024. Please pray that the application is approved. Her also-very-expensive back up "rescue" pills are not well covered by Medicare, but with the monthly injectibles, Sheryl has found substantial relief. We give thanks to God.

Timothy has decided to move back to Ithaca after almost 10 years in NYC. His work is portable and he'll be able to do his job remotely. We're looking forward to having him around more often.

We are hopeful that, with mom's moving into assisted living, the administrative and financial management support for her will be less time-consuming. We hope to get back to a more normal schedule... whatever that is.

Steve's high school class is organizing a 50th anniversary reunion in early April in Greenville, SC -- we hope to be able to attend and visit some Southern friends (that includes friends who live in the South) while we're in the neighborhood.

If you know mom, she'd love to get a card from you:
Naomi Cummings
1035 Hager Street
St. Marys, OH 45885

Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
-----Ісая 9:5-6

"Nativity, 2022"
by Ukrainian artist, Irenaeus Yurchuk

Advent - Your Labor Is Not in Vain

The new year begins with waiting as a reminder that we live between the times. We have confidence of how the story ends because of Advent, Christ has come to seal the promise of God. So we live in between the times. For how long? Only God knows. But today and even for another millennia, we are to live faithfully, often not seeing how our labor and our relationships matter or bear fruit. The Porters Gate sings a beautiful reminder provoked by the waiting of Advent and all of life turned toward God, his work, and the certainty that he will come again. Your Labor Is Not in Vain

BENEDICTION

Normally, we close with a benediction from Grace to You by Dale Ralph Davis. But today, we invite you to receive this benediction spoken by many faithful voices we value and trust. They are speaking God's words as an encouragement for us to reflect on all that has been entrusted to us that we might celebrate God's presence as we press forward in the light of his presence to advance his mission in the world.

We wish you a blessed Advent and a joyous New Year.

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