We interrupt this regularly scheduled programming...

I was in a store yesterday, talking to the proprietor, and other people were moving about.  Largely ignored, a show blared away on a large television screen on the back wall.  Quite suddenly, a banner moved across the screen, announcing breaking news.  "We interrupt this regularly scheduled programming to bring a special report."  The buzzing of the store stopped, all eyes focused on the screen.  I quivered a bit.  The last time I heard those words was in April with such heavy news from Boston.  We have come to know those words a little too much, all too often bearing heart-breaking tragedy and death.

And suddenly appearing on the screen was young couple carrying a newborn baby, surrounded by jubilant crowds.  I smiled.  The new prince.

"Big deal, a baby," one woman said, sarcastically.  Another just shook her head and went back to what she was doing, as if to say, "you interrupted my show for that?"

But I saw the joy of the new parents, carrying their first born son, and the cries of great happiness in the streets of London.  Good  tidings.  It is about time that the headlines bear some good news, instead of its overwhelming litany of woe and fear, despair and evil, perversion and oppression.  But, hey, that's reality, I can hear some say.  To which I would reply, so is this.

We can still celebrate something good.  That alone is worth interrupting the darkness.  May the headlines seek good tidings every day.

Like cold water to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country.

                        Proverbs 25.25