Entering Christmas with Hermann Hesse

Friends and fellow travelers,

On this first day of Christmas and the last Sunday of the year, we greet you from our sabbatical home in Berlin, Germany.  It has been a gray, wet winter here, but as we were walking toward the Berlin Cathedral the sun came out on Christmas Eve and turned the clouds and buildings rose gold, just an hour before the church began to ring its large bells to call people to the Christmas Eve service.

In this time of war, storms, uncertainty, and earthquakes, the longing for “peace on earth” is almost palpable, in our hearts, our homes, and in the world. We long for respite, for a break, or at least for some space between the emergencies.  We can barely imagine how Immanuel, God with us, might really feel.  Christmas songs ring hollow and Christmas-busyness fills, but also makes, the hollowness in our hearts.   

Still, the sun transformed buildings yesterday from gray to rose gold.  And we each know someone (or perhaps are someone) who has helped to carry a weary t…