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It's been a week of tough things.

One of those weeks where words have failed every time I've thought about putting up a post. Words haven't been the only thing evading me. It's been one of those weeks where sleep has also been a bit evasive. 

The weariness and heaviness of this year has felt extra full. 

The anticipation and longing that Advent seaon brings burning hotter and brighter. "Come, Lord Jesus" my oft-cried, if unspoken, prayer. 

I keep coming back to a song - what has become my new favourite Christmas song. Got introduced to it a couple weeks back through the online Songs of Hope Advent concert. "What Beauty" is the name. You can listen below. 

I haven't been able to shake the lyrics. Or the haunting beauty. It has mesmerized my heart and has reverberated in my mind all week.

We are invited into the mystery of the Christ child. The wonder. The beauty. The hope. 

And something about lingering with this song - and being swept away into worship - has made a week of tough things a week in which I have experienced God upholding me, drawing me close, giving me peace. 

A reminder to my own heart how worship can be this profound invitation to a deep communion with God. A rest and balm for a weary soul. A re-narrating of what is really true - about me, about the world, about the hope we have in Christ. 

I don't know how you are coping with the heaviness of this year. Let me encourage you to find ways to worship. Not as an escape. But as a way to walk through the hard things this year has brought and remind your heart of the profound hope and joy that has birthed into the world with the coming of our Saviour. 

"What beauty lies within

In the eyes of this child . . ."

Listen and be blessed,

Pastor Tim