Arise and Shine!

 

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King;

let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing”

(UMH 246, Isaac Watts, 1719).

 

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

 

As I waited for the New Year quietly after Christmas, we had a big snow. What a gift of time for us to stay in a house to clean up our old stuff, even our thoughts and minds, for the New Year 2022!  I mean, for our new beginnings! Actually, after shoveling the snow outside, I took a little time to clean up the old stuff looking around the house. Do you know what I found? It’s a very interesting ceramic Christmas house with a chimney.

 

Actually, it is a wind-up music box.    

 

“Ding-di-ding-ding, ding-di-ding-ding, ding-ding-ding, ding-ding-ding…” 

 

An interesting feature of this ceramic house is the Santa flying around the chimney when the music is on. Some years ago, when my kids were very little, they loved it! “Winding up, waiting, listening and hooraying… winding up again, waiting, listening and hooraying!”

 

How many times did they try? Numerous times! However, unfortunately, it does not work anymore because it has been broken for many years. So it is staying in the corner of the bookshelf silently. Even Santa on the chimney is missing.

 

Anyway, as I held the broken wind-up music box, I thought about those special days between Christmas and New Year’s Day with snow. It was truly winding up time for us before the music is on!

 

We all know that it was a quite challenging year last year as we dealt with pandemic, the direction of our nation, and its division, and the violence, hate crime, sugar coated political correctness, abusive power by the mass media and big tech, and the confusion between right and wrong, truth and lies. And those were not all. How about the wildfires, floods, and wintertime tornados. You name it! Then we sing...

 

“Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand, I am tired, I am weak, 

I am worn, through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light; 

take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home” (UMH 474, Thomas Dorsey, 1932).

 

However, we were not the only ones who sang this song as we prepared our new year during those days. About three thousand years ago, there was a man named Isaiah who brought the message of God when the people of Israel were exactly like that. The nation was divided into two, the Northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah. It was the dark days of the civil war between those two kingdoms. And Israel was destroyed by Assyria. In other words, they were all exhausted, tired, and weak and worn. They lost their hope; they lost their direction; and they lost their God.  However, this man of God, Isaiah, brought the message for them and for their nation.

 

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory 

of the Lord rises upon you” (Isaiah 60:1, NIV).

 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we know all those things happening around us now are inevitable because it is the human reality, sin and death. However, there is also the divine reality that helps us to break through the human reality brought by Isaiah this month as we take a first step for this new beginning! God says our light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon us!

 

So, arise and shine!

 

How exciting and how exhilarating it sounds! So, now I would like to invite you to join us on this new journey of breakthrough to arise and shine as a church together! Join us!

 

Grace and Peace,  

Pastor Kyochul