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Luke 23:33-34, 39-43 “33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, ...

Friday, December 23, 2016

The Hope of Christmas

I love the Christmas story.  It is a story about two ordinary people who are caught up in a most extraordinary, cosmic event that will change the world forever.

A young girl, who has never been intimate with a man who chooses to be intimate with God.  "Let it be so," she told the angel, Gabriel.

A man, who discovers that his fiancĂ© is pregnant and chooses (against all custom) to continue to love her and to love the child that she will bear.

It is a story about a hard journey to a distant city where relatives reside; of registering for the census; of being counted as taxpayers for the Roman tax.

It is a story about God's love for humanity entering the world in the form of a human child; a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and held close in his mothers arms; a baby born in a manger, the long awaited Messiah, surrounded by farm animals.

It is a story about God first revealing the incarnation through angels joyfully singing to shepherds; lowly keepers of sheep; servants of the fields, who leave their flocks and enter the manger to behold the godchild.

It is a story of prophecies foretold, divine promises kept; it is a story of faith and of acting on that faith; it is a story of God's intervention in the course of human events.

Whenever I think that this world is spiraling out of control, that there is no hope left, I remember the Christmas story, when love and hope were born in an ordinary way, in an ordinary place, to ordinary people.  And I have comfort.  And I have joy.


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