Love.

This theme is as simple as it is complex. Love is something we spend years, decades even, searching for. For many, it’s never fully found, and it never lives up to our expectations.

For many of us, love can evoke expected thoughts of celebration: when we meet our child for the first time, when we know that a relationship is not going away, or when we find joy in friendships that fill voids left by others.

Yet, for many the thought of love brings with it pain and mourning: loved ones no longer with us due to death, fading relationships with those we once loved, or great disappointment when loved ones let us down or try and hurt us. We cannot face this last Sunday of Advent without these thoughts.

This is the paradox love brings to our lives: pain and celebration. Try as we may, we can never avoid either. Love, in this dual reality, is as much part of our existence as the air we breathe.

So is love in the Christmas story we’re journeying toward. We love in this dualistic way because God has shown us that, to truly love, is to both sacrifice and celebrate.

Advent reminds us that love does not come into the world with all “sunshine and giddiness.” Juxtaposed against one another that first Christmas are the cries of a mother giving birth AND songs of angel choirs proclaiming “glory!”

So, too, is our call to carry that great love into the world. Doing so will bring joy… and pain. It will bring celebration… and sadness. It will call us to love those who don’t fit in our “boxes.” People who don’t look like us, sound like us, or believe like us. This love sees the boundaries we’ve built and seeks to demolish them. To live this love will be hope and change that is available to all people.

So, may we love the world around us with a love that knows no bounds, but know that we won’t always get right. May we love our world anyway, as we give room for pain and make time for celebration.

May we live out a love that fosters change, restoration, and hope in the places – and lives – where it is needed most.

As you love, may you know that you are loved, no matter what. Know that God loves you unfailingly, even when you can’t feel it.

And you are worthy of it all.