This past December, my Advent season was peppered with thoughts of rape. I’d been assigned to write an article on the topic for Prism, the magazine of Evangelicals for Social Action. So in between shopping for last-minute gifts, eating too much food with my family, and attending church services, I occasionally interviewed rape survivors on the phone. Or holed up in my parents’ office to research and write about this difficult topic.

 

Though I was grateful for the assignment, it certainly brought a heaviness to this season when we celebrate the Light of the World. These interviews and web searches felt anachronistic in this season of hope and joy. Inconvenient even. But then I realized how altogether appropriate that feeling was.