One day in June this year, I woke up speechless from a dream. I had witnessed a beautiful, surreal scene: the setting sun on the horizon, lights sparkling across the ocean as ships glided into port. The scene reminded me of our trip to Hawaii this year in April, where we stood on Waikiki Beach and saw the sun setting over the horizon in the middle of the sky, where heaven and earth were touching and kissing each other. There, we stood watching over the sun, longing for exactly that, the life of seamless tapestry that brings heaven and earth together as it unfolds in the vocations of our lives.
When I woke from the dream, I opened my Bible for morning devotion and began reading Revelation 19. My eyes fell on verse 17: "And I saw an angel standing in the sun." This phrase—"angel standing in the sun"—captured my attention. Here was an angel standing between heaven and earth, bringing the last consummating story of redemptive history to its fulfillment by bringing the will of heaven to earth.
As I was pondering the meaning of these—the dream and the phrase "angel standing in the sun"—Esther woke up and shared with me the most joyful surprise news I had ever heard: she was pregnant. With much joy, according to Korean tradition, Esther and I thought through how we should name our to-be-born baby. After connecting everything that had happened, we decided to name the baby “Noeul” while in the womb, a Korean word that describes the sacramental beauty of the sun setting over the beautiful horizon of the ocean, just like the one I saw in the dream, longing for a child to be born to grow to be exactly that: a servant of heaven who brings heaven and earth together, filling the world with the beauty of true light, in the unfolding of his life and vocation through whatever he becomes and does.
We also gave the child to be born February next year a real name, “Noel,” which comes from the Latin verb nasci ("to be born"), which made its way into Old French as a meaning for Christmas. In the lyrics of the Christmas carol and hymn "The First Noel," the lyrics sing:
The shepherds rose, and saw a star
Bright in the East, beyond them far,
Its beauty gave them great delight,
This star it set now day nor night.
Now by the light of this bright star
Three wise men came from country far;
They sought a king, such their intent,
The star their guide where'er it went.
Dear Our First Noel,
We long and pray for life of yours to be a little star, a joyful light, a servant of the Most High, that shines through whatever you become and do, wherever you go, pointing and leading the world through vocations of yours in directions that are more real, true, and right, in times of now and not-yet, until heaven and earth meet each other again in the presence of our little newborn Lord who lay in a manger on the night of the First Noel when the heavenly hosts sang:
"Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,
Born is the King of Israel."
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