Thursday night is Christmas Eve and will see many of us at Christmas services at our churches. In addition, last minute gifts will be wrapped, family members may brave the governor’s edicts and come by, and small children will breathlessly await the arrival of Santa Claus. Before then, life will be something of a blur. Cookies, gingerbread, and fruit cakes will be baked, presents wrapped, final gifts purchased, food organized for Christmas Eve and a big Christmas Day meal.
But in the midst of all the lists, the last minute trips to the store, the ribbon and the wrapping paper – – – in the midst of the frenzy – – – remember the words from Psalms that our minister, Pastor Kent, reminded us of recently, “Be still,. And know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Be still. Take a few moment to remember the words of one of Christianity’s greatest hymns, written by a Swedish minister, Carl Boberg:
Oh, Lord, my God.
When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, My Savior, God, to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, My Savior, God, to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
And as our souls sing out our praise to God, let us then remember the reason for all the for the Christmas trees, the gifts, the lights, the celebrations. This God, this Creator of the universe and of us, loves us so much that He sent a part of Himself to earth. The Christ child that we celebrate at Christmas, was born to teach, and to love, and eventually to die on a cross to give us the opportunity to accept His sacrifice and draw nearer to God, our Creator. No more would prophets and intricate rules and priests stand between us and God. Through the Love of God, come to earth for a short 33 years, we are given direct access to the Almighty, to the Almighty God whom we can now call Father. This omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God loves us, listens to us, comforts us through the Holy Spirit, holds us in the palm of His hand.
Yes, truly this is the “reason for the season,” this Divinity, this God, the Word came to earth to be hungry and wet and cold just as we have been. He was born in a stable, laid in the feeding trough, and became an itinerant preacher with “no place to lay His head” (Matthew 13:32). All for us. John says it best in the first 14 verses of his gospel:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Take a moment this week to be still and to consider the baby that was born In Bethlehem to teach us how to be children of God, and as the words of another old hymn remind us, who was “born to die that man might live” ( Harry Bolback, “Ring the Bells”)
Be still. And be thankful!