The Lord is come

I thought this was beautiful. It has helped me be still in the end-of-year busyness. It has become my prayer for anyone hurting this Christmas, or anyone struggling to understand their life and where God might fit in at a time of year where it's so hard to be alone or unsure:

Joy is not the froth and lightness we tend to long for and expect. Joy is an anchor; it is heavy. It falls into the coldest, deepest dark places, where the current and pressure are enough to crush bone, and it holds there. On the surface waves crash and roll, and we are not steady but we are held, and somehow that is beautifully enough. So when the soldier is not yet home, when the cure has not yet been found, when the loneliness hasn’t yet faded, there is Joy. When the hurt hasn’t yet seen its end, there is Joy. When we wait and wait and all for nothing because the happiness we’ve asked for doesn’t arrive, there is Joy. The Lord is come.

From here.