"The hopes and fears of all the years / Are met in Thee tonight."

For the past few days, I've thought about the Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," written by Phillips Brooks and set to music by Lewis Redner. I love the line, "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight."

All of our hopes--everything we've ever longed for or will long for--appears in Christ, the Everlasting Light. I think of C.S. Lewis' often quoted line that in Christ, the "door we've been knocking on all our lives will open at last."

It's not just what we have hoped for; our fears come together and find resolution and peace in the Incarnation. We have nothing more to hope for; we have nothing more to fear.

It all comes about on Christmas Eve.