{"id":292,"date":"2009-12-24T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-24T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/12\/advent-prayer-day-26-welcoming-the-light.html"},"modified":"2009-12-24T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-24T06:00:00","slug":"advent-prayer-day-26-welcoming-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/12\/advent-prayer-day-26-welcoming-the-light.html","title":{"rendered":"Advent Prayer, Day 26: Welcoming the Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Claudia Mair Burney<\/p>\n<p><strong>Christmas Eve<\/strong><\/p>\n<div><em>&#8220;While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.&#8221; Luke 2:6 NRSV<\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><\/em>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><strong>Light of the world, <\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p><strong>The people walking in darkness await you. We who are living in the land of the shadow of death have fixed our eyes to the sky for the dawning of your light. Strong God, coming in the fragile flesh of a baby, there is no room in the inn for your exhausted father and laboring mother. But we are here, watching for the light, scrambling to sweep our hearts clean, and flinging the doors to our messy lives wide open in the shadowy night.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Come, Lord Jesus.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Claudia Mair Burney Christmas Eve &#8220;While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.&#8221; Luke 2:6 NRSV &nbsp; Light of the world, &nbsp; The people walking in darkness await you. We who are living in the land of the shadow of death have fixed our eyes to the sky for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,46,14,25,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-advent-prayer","category-bible","category-jesus","category-prayer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Advent Prayer, Day 26: Welcoming the Light<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/12\/advent-prayer-day-26-welcoming-the-light.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent Prayer, Day 26: Welcoming the Light\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Claudia Mair Burney Christmas Eve &#8220;While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.&#8221; Luke 2:6 NRSV &nbsp; Light of the world, &nbsp; The people walking in darkness await you. We who are living in the land of the shadow of death have fixed our eyes to the sky for&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/12\/advent-prayer-day-26-welcoming-the-light.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-24T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Advent Prayer, Day 26: Welcoming the Light","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2009\/12\/advent-prayer-day-26-welcoming-the-light.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Advent Prayer, Day 26: Welcoming the Light","og_description":"By Claudia Mair Burney Christmas Eve &#8220;While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.&#8221; Luke 2:6 NRSV &nbsp; Light of the world, &nbsp; The people walking in darkness await you. 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