by 
Sunday, December 11
God with us is now residing, yonder shines the infant light
From Angels, from the Realms of Glory
By Rev. Dr. Bill Wright
God with us is now residing / Yonder shines the infant light” is addressed to “you” shepherds, and so addresses us as well, “in the fields abiding, watching over your flocks by night.” “Abiding” carries the senses both of dwelling, but also waiting-for. We are just biding our time, resigned to make our home here. Physically here, at least, we watch-over our charges and duties; but in our present darkness the focus of our care and attention glazes over, over-looking our various sheep toward something invisible, unimaginable.
In gentle contrast to our abiding in the darkness, God-with-us (the literal meaning of “Immanuel”) “is now residing.” Like and yet unlike us, the Christ now resides here, suggesting to remain in a place as a visitor, and to remain fixed in a position or office (OED). Like a doctor doing her residency, the “newborn King” dwells only lightly in the dimness of the here and now, with the certainty that all the weight/brilliance of glory (kabod/doxa) resides in the future realm: “Though an Infant now we view Him / He shall fill His Father’s throne.” To have faith in the nascent Christ is to dwell by the light of the future promise. By this faith, “by the infant light,” we can tend our sheep for what they are. Our jobs and chores are not our ultimate calling, the economy is not our true realm, and our lonely fields are not a final home.
Prayer: Coming Christ, lead us from our fields to the sabbatical “yonder” of your presence, your glory, so that we may “come and worship” our true King; and let us, like the shepherds, return to our fields “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen” (Luke 2). Amen
