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Editor’s note: We inadvertently overlooked this Christmas reflection by our social media coordinator, Rebekah O’Brien.  We are posting it now, knowing it will still be very beneficial for our readers.

Last night I was in Canada’s capital at the National Arts Centre to see Handel’s Messiah. I grew up hearing recordings of the masterpiece. My dad was determined that his children should know the meaning of Christmas, and have good taste in music. So, 20 years later, here I sat, hearing it live for the first time.

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And I wept. Music moves me, and seeing Handel’s Messiah live was no exception. But that’s not why I was weeping this time. I was weeping for joy.

Allow me to explain.

I grew up in Québec but moved south of the border to Missouri at a fairly young age. I went back to Canada for university. Through all the hardships college students face, I went back and forth from Ottawa to St. Louis quite often. Now I live in New York. And in the last 16 years I’ve seen these two cultures deteriorate.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to understand how truly corrupt both nations have become. We have the most pro-abortion president in history currently in office. But for me in particular, the abortion laws (or lack thereof) in Canada are absolutely horrifying. Abortion on demand. Partial birth abortion. Close to 500 babies born alive after failed abortions and left to die in the last decade alone. And corruption has made its way into churches too. Recently we published an article about how Bishop Plouffe of Sudbury, Ontario has not only supported, but promoted one of the most pro-abortion politicians speaking at a Catholic school. And the US is not far behind.

So here I sat, in my nation’s capital, down the road from Canada’s parliament, surrounded by the stench of corruption. And I heard these words ringing through the amphitheater:

“I know that my Redeemer liveth. And that He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. I know that my Redeemer liveth. For now Christ is risen from the dead.”

I wept when the choir began to sing “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given. And the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’”

I wept because what was true to Job, to the prophet Isaiah, and to the apostle Paul as he wrote to the Corinthians, remains true today. There is yet hope! We cannot lose sight of who Christ was and is and ever shall be. That in this season we not only celebrate the birth of our Savior, but we recognize that the true meaning of Christmas is realized at Easter, when we are reminded that our Redeemer lives, that He is risen! And He is coming.

The same One who was spoken of by the prophets of old, and by the saints in the first century, that same One lives and reigns today. And even in a corrupt nation, you can still hear the sounds of the saints praising God:

“Halelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ: And He shall reign forever and ever.”

He shall reign forever and ever.