the trees are bursting into bloom here and several of my friends are sniffling their way through allergy attacks. spring is here. and to my feeling, about 3 weeks too early. but i'm not complaining. i'll do that in august when everything has the potential to be kindling. i love seeing the trees change though, to check the new growth as i walk down my street to the bus stop.
we had a particularly moving chapel this past tuesday, as part of regent's 2 week "offering of the arts" celebration. for one of the songs we sang, photographs taken by a student were on the power point along with the lyrics.
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, thou rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of of hell thy people save
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here
And drive away the shaves of night
And pierce the clouds and bring us light
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
O come, O come, Thou Lord of mightÂ
Who to thy tribes, on Sinai's height
In ancient times did'st give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
(Rev. Isaac Watts)
Seeing these photos along with these familiar lyrics brought me close to tears. amazing that the combination of these too things alone should elicit such a strong reaction, when alone it probably would not have been the case. still mulling my feelings over.
so far what i've got is this ... i was overcome with longing. longing for Jesus to return, longing for things to be made right, longing to experience redemption, longing to see justice done, longing for healing, longing for more, longing for God. as i have studied here, as i have grown, i bump up against this feeling and other related ones - brokenness, tension, sadness and so on. to put it simply ... I WANT MORE. not in the lame consumer wish-i-had-a-million-bucks kind of way. but more in the way of knowing that God created us for more than this - to feel more, to live more ... just more. i am wary of spirituality that makes it seem that you can be utterly satisfied here on earth right now, on your own power. and the longing, the desire for this to happen for the world just about makes me weep sometimes.
it's hard to feel this way. yet there is hope in it, there is comfort somehow. because it WILL happen someday. just like after every long hard winter, there is a spring, and it is beautiful.
hm. that's what i've though through so far, anyway. thoughts, anyone?
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