Advent, Day 15: In my prayers.

Today's reading: Ephesians 1:16-21

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ... may give you a spirit of wisdom... that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you... (Eph. 1: 16, 17a, 18b)

What more can I say to you, friends of my heart; you who have, this year, had your hearts broken, your dreams undone? Who have had the most wrenching goodbyes demanded of you? Who have had to choose another path, who cannot see the way forward from here?

What more can I say than this: that you are at this and every moment in my heart, and on my lips in prayer. That I ask our God, the God of Grace and Glory, to give you the wisdom of His Spirit, and the vision of His heart. That you will be able to lift up your eyes to look toward the coming Christ, and that you will recognize in Him the Bread you crave, the Light you seek, the Shepherd you trust, the Vine where you abide, the Way you go.

In this season of yearning, what more can I say than this: that I pray you may know, not just in Advent but always, that He has called you--He has called us--to hope. Hope in what we cannot see from here: that new Life is waiting to be born into a world that is reeling with constant sorrows. That Life is change: the revolution of our planet, the reformation of our expectations, the revelation of our becoming. That Life has "immeasurable power" over death, over pain, over distance, over time.

What more can I say than this: I do not ever cease to give thanks for you. Never.