Sitting in Darkness

Today is Christmas Eve. But I am not sure that I am "feeling it." Instead I feel blue, uncertain, a little sadness. I know Christmas is on the doorstep, but I don't yet feel the joy.

There is a prayer in the first chapter of Luke that opens with the following line:

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them." (Luke 1:68)

It is a prayer of joy and hope that celebrates the impending arrival of Jesus. It is a prayer that looks forward to salvation and the forgiveness of sins. It is a prayer that underscores the reason for our joy at Christmas.

The prayer closes with the following promise:

"By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:78-79)


While the prayer brings the promise of light and salvation, I cannot help but be struck by the description of those to whom the promise is being delivered: those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

Can there be any better words to describe the state of the addict?

Sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Yes, I think that is where I am today. My heart is sad and incomplete. It wonders why it is more pre-occupied with the preparation for Christmas than with the promise of joy that Christmas is to deliver. My heart feels in a shadow.

But there, too, is where the hope lies. For the shadow points to the light. Knowing sadness, knowing fear, knowing darkness - these all imply the joy, imply the hope, imply the light that is coming with the new dawn of the birth of the Christ child.

Today my heart is sad. But that is ok - I am walking in shadows. And behind the shadows there is the light. God is coming. Peace is near!!!