For the past month-and-a-half Christine and I have been working on our Christmas Eve Family Service. Not only contemplating how Covid will make it different this year, but what we want to talk about and focus on, and how kids and students might be able to be involved. This has been a somewhat new experience for me, since I am usually pretty strict on when I let myself begin to celebrate holidays. I don’t like to listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, and it always bewilders me when I walk into stores and see Christmas decorations in the middle of October. So it’s new for me to spend so much time thinking about Christmas, outside of what I normally allot for the season. As it turns out, with all else going on in life, to be able to sit in the story of our savior’s birth has been incredibly life-giving and soul-refreshing.
It is common to give time to Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection in our individual and communal worship, but for me, I usually fail to dwell on his birth outside of the Christmas season. It could be that I am one of a few for which this is true, but if you find yourself in a similar situation, I would encourage you to read Luke 1 and 2 and sit in the narrative of Jesus’ birth. It has reminded me of who our savior is, that he came in humility and in unexpected ways. It has reminded me that our savior fully entered into the messiness of human life and he is familiar with our experiences on this earth, in fact he knows exactly what we go through and because of that we can draw near to him. We do not serve a far-off God, but one who offers tangible and real hope to His people, every day, not just at Christmas. May the joy and hope offered by our Savior fill you today, may His peace surround you no matter what you are facing in life.