“When will it snow? My daughter asked me a few days ago.
“I don’t know. It may take a while”, I replied.
“No!” Her disappointment was obvious.
Then the meteorologists predicted snow, but the snow stayed away from my part of the country, until we woke up to a snowstorm, Sunday morning. Snow became sleet and rain, and we, grown-ups, nodded to each other.
Now Monday afternoon I can see I was wrong. The snow lies as a blanket on my lawn, bathed in sunshine.
The meteorologists say it won’t snow again for some time now. They might be wrong.
We can make ourselves wise and clever, but we can’t predict everything. I don’t think anybody foresaw the terror attack on Paris.
Every time I read the news or observe discussions (quarrels) on Facebook, it seems like there will soon come an ice age in the entire world. Many meters of snow has fallen into the ventricles of the Islamists.

Will it be Christmas? Can Christmas-joy grow in the frozen ground this year?
Suddenly, something else steps into my mind.

Love conquers all.

We cannot let fear paralyze us, and we cannot let media form the reality. We must not let go of faith, hope or love.
God’s love hasn’t left us. God has not left us. We have to hold on to His holy love, and share it with the world.
Jesus says, we must love our neighbor. Our neighbors are not just our loved ones, but also the strangers, the Muslims and the Islamists.
Jesus loved Judas, the disciple, who betrayed him. He loved the men, who spat at him, mocked and crucified him. Jesus also loves those, who are against him. He loves the Islamists.
God loves all people. If he didn’t, Jesus wouldn’t have sacrificed himself for us.

May God teach us to love each other, our neighbors, our enemies.
May He teach us to forgive them, because they don’t know what they do (Luke 23:34).
May we all see the light
in the winter darkness
behind the headlines,
the somber faces,
and behind the Facebook bullying
May God show us Christ’s light
which he has lit within our hearts