December Greetings and Merry Christmas!

Do you have the joy in your heart like a small child anticipating Christmas? Waiting can be very difficult. Is there a more beautiful service than being in the chapel on Christmas Eve, raising your candle, singing “Silent Night, Holy Night?” If you ask Teresa or my children what my favorite music is, and they will quickly reply, Christmas music of course. For real excitement, stop by God’s Kids that last week before Christmas and you will see God’s children alive and so excited they can hardly stand it.

For some Christmas can be difficult due to heartaches, heartbreaks, losses, insecurities over many factors and just the ups and downs of life. I urge you to seek peace through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, who came to us on this day we call Christmas. Christmas brings to us God incarnate, meaning God with flesh and blood, like one of us, yet fully God. I would like to consider His incarnation in this letter to you this month.

Incarnation. That is what Christmas is all about. It is the coming of light in a world of darkness. It is God breaking through all of the barriers. It is strength and power and might redefined in the form of a newborn baby. Christmas is peace, love, joy, and hope. And just as that candle spreads from the table in the sanctuary to those that are singing in the sanctuary, Christmas is the light of Christ spreading into the hearts of the faithful, and being carried out into the world. It is not about “happily ever after.” It is about the presence of God in the midst of real life.

It is a reminder that right here in the world is a promise that God is with us. Right here with the cancer is hope. Right here with the struggle and upheaval is peace. Right here in the gathering of Christ’s people is joy. Right here with our fellow humans, hurting, sinning, and falling, is love.

So I’m waiting for Christmas Eve, and that day will be here before you know it. I’m waiting to wish you a Merry Christmas, and to see your face lit by the glow of a candle. It’s my favorite time of year, and I’m so glad we can do this together.

In Christ,

Pastor Greg