Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all people... (Luke 2:10)
You know what you like most about Christmas. Your favorite songs, your favorite decorations, your favorite traditions, your favorite holiday desert. You know what is meaningful to your family--the births and deaths, the memories and hopes, the gratitude and the losses.
And at church we share all those things. But we also share something else. We share news.
Two thousand and 24 years ago, give or take a few years, something happened to a girl named Mary. It isn't easy to explain. It wasn't quite like just another spiritual experience, the way some people have near-death experiences or dreams. It was a little more like being visited by an alien. Someone from completely outside space and time recruited Mary to help bring Him into our plane of existence. The creator of our planet and a trillion others transmitted himself into a countryside village, and was born in a stable. God became one of us.
God became one of us.
It's a stupendous story. I don't blame anyone for finding it hard to believe. But for those who do believe, it's news worth telling. It's news worth singing carols about, and writing speeches about, and getting together to discuss and apply.
Now that the Author of Life has become one of us, we have a new perspective on what life is all about. Now that the Fountain of Love has brought forgiveness and acceptance, we have a new understanding of how to get along with one another (and with ourselves). Now that the Eternal Mystery has lived as a human, we have our first real contact with everything that is beyond our ability to see or understand. Now that the Savior has come among us, we are free from the power of every enemy--even death.
This Sunday is the last before Christmas; we worship at 10 a.m. We also will be caroling after church, and we have a Christmas Eve service (with candlelight and communion) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. (Stay after for snacks and deserts.) We love to reach out to all our friends, old and new. And we will spend some time reconnecting with the good news of great joy that we celebrate this season.
--Jonathan
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