Advent Series, Week 4: Love

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3V16

“LOVE is a many splendored thing” as the song goes.  However, sadly it isn’t as straight forward as the song would suggest, well, especially not in my daily environment.  As a prison chaplain working with a very fragile and broken community of men I hear of deep love daily, but with that love there are a lot of shattered pieces.  Pieces that are continually trying to be put back together again.  Broken relationships, children who can’t be contacted, mums unable to visit due to their own health issues, siblings who have their own lives and families to deal with.  So yet again the prisoner feels like they are left alone for another Christmas. 

As Christians, however, we know that we are not alone for we know a light and a hope; and we can bring this light and hope into those dark lonely places.  We sing at this time of Advent, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”.  Emmanuel, God with us; he came in the form of a vulnerable, fragile baby.  Although he was with his parents, there was an instability, a time of unrest, of fear, of the unknown.  Yet Mary and Joseph trusted the process, they were being guided and kept safe, so that this little bundle of love would be able to fulfil its purpose, to bring love into hearts that needed and wanted him, not just 2000 years ago but to this very day. 

And that love, that truth, that Emmanuel, God is with us, is something that we all can share and show to all around us this Christmas time, but especially to those who think they have nobody, nothing and no hope to continue.  The love that came into the world will help to restore the broken pieces, heal the broken hearts and renew broken lives.  This is the gift of love this Christmas and for all eternity. 

Jill Clancy, Scottish Prison Chaplain