It's HERE! Christmas is here!
Maybe you've been working hard this Advent season, working hard to prepare your heart and life to receive the Blessings of Christmas. Maybe you've been working hard to get all the things of our cultural Christmas done: decorating, cooking, shopping, traveling. All that hard work has finally paid off, and Christmas is HERE!
In Advent, we prepared our hearts by thinking about hope. Some of our hopes are shallow: I hope I get the present I asked for from Santa. Some of our hopes are much deeper. Our hope for the realization of God's kingdom. Some of our hope is already realized and some of it we're still waiting for, but Christ is BORN! Our hope is sure!
In Advent, we prepared our hearts by thinking about peace. Sometimes peace is hard to think about, when the world seems so divided. Sometimes our peace is elusive amidst the busy-ness of life. We prepare our hearts by thinking of the assurances of God. We prepare our minds by seeing all that God has done for us. Sometimes it's hard to balance the difficulties of life and the peace we expect to find, but Christ is BORN! He rules the world with truth and grace! We now have our peace and can try to claim it!
In Advent, we prepared our hearts by thinking about joy. Paul said, "REJOICE, Ya'll! REJOICE ALWAYS, and again I say, REJOICE!" He also said, "let your gentleness be known everywhere and to everyone." Sometimes there's too much going on in our lives to feel joy. There are reasons to grieve, and reasons to be cynical. Sometimes, our bodies just need more sleep or more sunlight or more nutrition, and our biology makes us feel depressed, it can be difficult to BOTH be depressed AND feel joy, but Christ is BORN! We can turn from cynicism and depression to our Lord! We can scream Joy to the World!
In Advent, we prepared our hearts by thinking about love. Love is sometime only an emotion, but sometimes, love can be a choice. Emotional love is hard to deny when looking into the face of an infant, when being hugged by dear family or friends. Sometimes, though, we have to look through God's eyes to see someone with love. We have to struggle to choose to love people who annoy us or people who are different from us. Sometimes we struggle to muster the ethical choice to love someone or even just to see them when they are in a lower place in society, but CHRIST IS BORN! Mary said, "Yes! Let it be!" She participated in that mutual love between mother and child--between woman and deity. We can do that, too when we see the face of Christ on everyone we meet. We DO that when we love each other in the community which is our congregation, and when we love others in our community beyond the walls of our church.
CHRIST IS BORN! LET HEAVEN AND NATURE SING! All the hard work of preparing in Advent is done, now enjoy the blessings of Christmas!
--Chas
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