Christmas 2019


Consider the keys in your pocket. What do they reveal about your life? The responsibilities you bear… the places you frequent… the people with whom you interact… the things you sometimes need to lock and unlock. Freedom… duties… security… what do your keys represent?

The key that drew my attention recently, as I was fidgeting with the keys on my keyring, is one that I haven’t used in awhile — and will, in fact, never use again. It’s the key to my parents’ house in Lincoln — which we finally sold this year as one final bittersweet task in the process of closing out Dad’s estate. I know there’s no point in keeping that key, let alone keeping it on my keyring. But I just haven’t been able to bring myself to take it off… to let go of that one last reminder of the place that used to be home. One key. So many unlocked memories.

During these final days before Christmas, the Church has traditionally sung a series of “O Antiphons” that call upon the King of Kings using various titles bestowed on him: O Root of Jesse… O Root of Jesse… O Emmanuel… O Dayspring… O Key of David. We sing about it in the hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel:

O come, thou Key of David, come / And open wide our heavenly home. / Make safe the way that leads on high / And close the path to misery.

God has a way of locking and unlocking aspects of life in ways that can be baffling. We struggle to understand why one door is locked to us while a door we didn’t expect springs open suddenly before us. Sometimes we cling to the grimy old keys of our past, instead of eagerly grasping a shiny new key that is placed before us.

As you busy yourself with the holidays, preparing to lock up the past year and unlock the possibilities awaiting in the year ahead… take a minute or two to reflect on what truly matters in your life. Cherish the places you’ve been… and resolve to go confidently through the doors God will open for you in the future.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

ECW