Merry Christmas!  That sounds so weird to say.  Could it be that time already?  Are we really only a few weeks away from celebrating the coming of our Lord and Savior?  With the weather being what it has been, it does not feel like we will soon be singing “Away in a Manger,” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”  Before we know it the presents will be open, and disappear into the closets and the pile of things we can re-gift.

                 Many of you know my fondness for the TV show “Everybody Loves Raymond.”  In one episode, Ray goes and gets his parents a toaster that is engraved with a special message from his family to them.  In their normal turn of events, Ray finds out that his parents never even opened the box because they had a perfectly good toaster and they returned the one he bought them with the engraving on it.  Ray was angry that his parents did not even begin to appreciate the effort and energy that he put into the gift for them.

In my opinion, that is one of the biggest dangers of this time of year and that danger comes from both sides of the coin.  Either we can get frustrated over the response from others over their gifts or we can possibly offend with our reaction to their gift.  When I think of those things, I cannot help but wonder how God feels about our reaction to his gift.  It often seems that we openly welcome his gift of Christ at first, but then as time goes by that gift gets left in the closet to do nothing more than collect dust.

But I think in the rush and hustle of the season we forget the true nature of God’s gift.  Not only has he given us a child who reminds us of God’s love for us, but he gives us the promise of forgiveness and eternal life, the strength and encouragement to make it through the toughest times of life, and the ability to see that he loves us beyond our successes and failures.

Even though many of our gifts that will be under the tree will be gone, used or discarded over the next month or two, the gift of Christ will never leave us even when we do not want it.  The promise of the Christ child is a promise that has its foundation in God’s faithfulness, not ours.  May peace and contentment bless you as we kneel beside the one gift we have in life that will never fail.

Peace and Blessings

Pastor Brian

Previous News Letters

March 2008

May 2008

Sept 2008

Nov 2009

Dec 2009