(This image was first posted to another internet group on Christmas Day.)

This postcard greeting was not mailed at Christmas, but it is a fitting image for the day and the season.

We cannot know the circumstances surrounding the sending of this postcard to Elsie Messner of Stevens, PA.

The postcard, printed in Europe, was mailed from Bowmansville, by Naomi Messner, in June of 1907.

Hope is symbolized by the Angel in white who encounters a figure dressed in mourning.

The Angel does not struggle, does not subdue the grief by argument or vanquish the despair by force.

Instead, the Angel enfolds the despairing one with a loving look and a tender embrace.

So we may know at Christmas that our troubled times and our fearful challenges can be borne in Hope.

“To us a Child of Hope is born; to us a Son is given…”

A blessed Christmas to all.