As Christmas Day has past and we look back at the Advent season, my hope is that you prepared room for His dwelling with us, with you.

Jesus’ ultimate desire is to bring us back to our Father, to bring us out of the despair of this world, into His redeeming love.

Find hope in our being on this side of the cross! With the veil lifted and God’s promises fulfilled in Christ Jesus, we have the ability to see clearly and know God’s loving pursuit for us.

As Ruth Chou Simons writes in Emmanuel,

“What we have as the answer for our deepest longings is that which those who lived long before the cross ached to know in full.”

As you move forward into a New Year, may this knowledge, this gift, compel you into a response of celebration, of worship, and of hopeful obedience.