Joy at the Return of the Light

Okay, so it was bitter cold last night and even more bitter weather is on the horizon. And yet...wow. The sun has been shining so beautifully today. I love it. Absolutely love the return of the light. It seems to lift the spirit like nothing else does.

And if the natural light does this for us, how much more the light that is Christ? I think of that lovely Advent hymn (which comes to us from the Russian tradition and has been one of my favorites since I learned it first from the 1969 Worship Supplement):

The King shall come when morning dawns
And light triumphant breaks,
When beauty gilds the eastern hills
And life to joy awakes.

Not as of old a little child,
To bear and fight and die,
But crowned with glory like the sun
That lights the morning sky.

O brighter than that rising morn
When Christ victorious rose
And left the lonesome place of death
Despite the rage of foes;

O brighter than that glorious morn
Shall dawn upon our race;
The day when Christ in splendor comes
And we shall see His face.

The King shall come when morning dawns
And light and beauty brings.
"Hail, Christ the King!" Your people pray;
"Come quickly, King of kings!" LSB 348