Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall Come...

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Everytime I get the chance to sit and write my mind goes wild with the millions of wonderful things I need to get out in words, and yet words continue to fail me. There are just some experiences that just haven't been turned into defined concepts with sufficient meaning. Sure, there are myriads of terms that could give the most minute glimpses of understanding -- but nothing that comes close to the real, full and utter loveliness that is welling up inside of me. I'm literally bursting at the seams with joy and revelry.

Most of those who know me or even those who have observed my comings and goings in recent days would tell you that they know why I'm so abundantly happy, but even they only know a portion of the cause. Let me tell you, the reason they would give is most definitely on the short list of motivators -- but even that cannot fully explain this joy. Though that great love is most assuredly an agent of change and cheer, it is not alone in it's endeavors.

I think the best way to explain it for tonight (or this morning as the case almost always ends up being) is that I am incredibly and ridiculously excited about the future. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month or a Saturday next July -- but the eternal future that could come anytime between now and whenever.

Christmas is such a great time to really understand the concept that Christ came to Earth and that He's coming again. I used to sit and think, "He didn't have to if He didn't want to so what would possibly make Him leave heaven to come to this wretched place and save this wretched person?".
I know now that the 'what' that would make Him humble Himself so profoundly is the great love He has for His own. It's the love that made Him so needlessly merciful to Adam & Eve. The same love that saved Noah and blessed Abraham. The same love that captivated David's heart and redeemed his sinful soul. The same love that sought after Israel with compassion and perseverance. It was that same love that has chased after and fought for the affections and dedications of prostitutes, druggies, lepers, tax collectors, murderers, thieves, disobedient children, promise breakers, liars, idolaters, envious neighbors, adulterers, savages, fakers, and self righteous do-gooders.

It's the love that compelled Him, by His very nature, to chase me down, drag me out, pick me up and call me His, time and time again.

And if that love did it once... If that love made the perfect, blameless Prince of Heaven be born in such a provincial manner to live in squalor and disgrace among the very men He Himself had created only to die for their transgressions (for my sins) -- Certainly, He will come again. He will come and fulfill his promises and redeem this earth fully.

And Love, if that doesn't get your blood pumping and your adrenaline glands working overtime -- I don't know what will.