“A Ray of Hope”

In the Christmas song, “O Holy Night,” the phrase “a Ray of Hope, the weary world rejoices” has particular meaning for me this year. My sister, Cynthia is confined to a wheelchair with Multiple Sclerosis. My sister, LaVerne is recovering from surgery with several pins in her arm from a fall she took two weeks ago. My daughter, Jeri, struggles with Graves’ disease.

My sister, Iva, has a son (Darnell) who is recovering from a grand mal epileptic siezure. My mother-in-law just buried her sister. My son, Freddy Haynes, just buried his aunt.

My cousin, Dennis Wiley, just buried his mother, his father (within a month) and his brother-in-law (the next month); and we as a nation are still bogged down in two wars we should not be in! Over 5,000 American boys and girls have lost their lives in those wars.

Yet the story of the birth of Jesus — God’s gift of Grace to this “weary world” — still sends a RAY OF HOPE through the murky mists of human misery. I thank God for that RAY OF HOPE and I offer it to you with the prayer that it might lighten your path as we head into a new year.