Christmas

I love Christmas. And I love the season of Advent. This season reminds me of what life is all about. It is all about that baby boy that came so many years ago, to rescue His people. So many times we get so busy and wrapped up in parties, programs, shopping and such, that we forget the true meaning of Christmas. I pray that each of you will take the time to look back and remember. Remember that baby boy so humble and perfect that He came for you and me. I will leave you with a few quotes and some Scripture to emphasize this truth.

"...in this child, in the man he grew up to be, there is the power of God to bring light into our darkness, to make us whole, to give us a new kind of life to anybody who turns toward him in faith, even to such as you and me.

This is what Matthew and Luke are trying to say in their stories about how he was born, and this is the truth that matters, and the wise men, the shepards, the star, are important only as ways of pointing to this truth. So what is left to us then is the greatest question of them all. How do we know whether or not this truth is true? How do we find out for ourselves whether in this child born so long ago there really is the power to give us a new kind of life in which both suffering and joy are immeasurably deepened, a new kind of life in which little by little we begin to be able to love even our friends, at moments maybe even our enemies, maybe at last even ourselves, even God?

Adeste fidelis. That is the only answer that I know for people who want to find out whether or not this is true. Come all ye faithful, and all ye who would like to be faithful if only you could, all ye who walk in darkness and hunger for light. Have faith enough, hope enough, despair enough, foolishness enough, at least to draw near to see for yourselves." ~Frederick Buechner, The Hungering Dark

"And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." ~Luke 1:76-80