A strange thing is happening in my house this year, an unexpected thing—it is starting to feel a lot like Christmas! I didn’t think that was going to happen this year. I was sure that since this was my first Christmas without my husband Neil I would want to go to my bed on December 1st and wake up on January 1st. But instead, we started watching Neil’s favourite Hallmark Christmas movies as soon as the W Network started airing them. The girls cleaned and decorated the house for Christmas on November 16th while I was away chairing the Western Ontario Waterways Regional Council meeting. I came home and the tree was up and our family Advent Wreath was in the middle of our kitchen table with its candles of hope, peace, joy and love ready to be lit each Sunday. Then, on November 29th, just before our first big snow, I put up our colourful outdoor Christmas lights and each night when I get home, there they are, glowing in the darkness. We even managed to bake our red and green M&M cookies for the Centennial Christmas Bazaar, get the church float in the Santa Claus Parade and stage another White Gift Pageant.
All of this combined, fills me with a profound sense of wonder. Even in the midst of grief and sorrow, the joy of Christmas is finding a way to be born. That is the miracle of Christmas, isn’t it? That our God of love is born into this human world, with all its strife, and we are comforted.
I pray that this advent season, you too will see signs of hope, peace, joy and love that bring comfort and lift your spirits and remind you of the grace of God found in the Christmas story. And at the same time, I trust that the communities of faith and individual members within our regional council will be those very signs of hope, peace, joy and love for one another. This Christmas, let us give thanks for each and every sign of Emmanuel: God with us!
With tidings of comfort and joy,
Rev. Jennifer Irving
President, Western Ontario Waterways Regional Council
