It’s Christmas eve. It hardly seems possible; it feels like just a few weeks ago that Lisa and I moved into Bowling Green to begin our ministry with the people of Faith United Methodist Church. And yet, 6 months have passed and this calendar year is almost over.
It’s Christmas eve. We have so much written and spoken in our culture about this holy night that it is kind of confusing. Our words and actions around this time send so many mixed messages some might wonder at our mental health. Or perhaps it would be better to wonder at our spiritual health. We have elevated a plethora (for my family :D) of things and values to the level of devotion and even worship. We obsess about decorations and the purchase and giving of cards and gifts, often putting ourselves in debt that will burden us for months or even years. We do real harm to our physical and emotional health in arranging and enduring family gatherings that many times do more harm to our relationships with each other than good. We try to include worship in our schedule, if we have the time and if our friends and families don’t mind too much, but it usually takes a back seat to lots of other things.
It’s Christmas eve. A day when we commemorate a miracle. No, not the fact that a virgin supernaturally became pregnant and bore a son; although that is pretty miraculous. It has never happened before or since. And we are not all worked up over the astronomical signs that drew Magi to Jerusalem, or shepherds from their fields. The miracle we celebrate this night is that God loves us so much that he was willing to become one of us. The Son became Jeshua bar Joseph, born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth, so he could die for us and reconcile all people to God. That infinite, unconditional and incomprehensible love is the miracle we mark tonight.
It is Christmas eve. It is Love that causes us to fall down and worship; it is Love that we proclaim in song and light. It’s Christmas eve, a night to love and be loved, because the Word became flesh, and “what has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” And it never will!
Merry Christ-mass,
Bruce
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Hi, brother Bruce!
ReplyDeleteMy name also is Bruce and I also have a blog called "Bruce's Blog."
This is an amazing coincidence, as my lady's name is also 'Lisa.'
I am involved in a prison ministry, in which I write prisoners about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna. Lisa is a Bible-thumping, Apocalyptic, meating eating Christian. I am a Hare Krishna...if I were a Christian, I would be a Catholic but I am neither although I am planning on going to Catholic Mass with Lisa tomorrow.
Who knows what the future holds? Although we make our daily plans we do not always know what are the Lord's designs for us. After all, man proposes and God disposes. We can, ultimately, only know God's will for us by reading the scrpitures, for even the New Testament is a prescription for living; it can be a daily meditation on how to 'live in the world but not of it.'
I was sad to hear of the passing of your Miss Betty. We must forgive one another for coming into this world, knowing and loving one another and then departing from one another's company. Sometimes I get 'angry' at loved ones who leave this planet before I do...why could they not stay and continue their loving? We must forgive one another before death...we must tell one another we love each other. Ultimately, the Lord is our Beloved but while on this earth we must see the divinity in each other.
The Lord is present in the heart as the beloved of the soul, and He is our inner prompter and lover. He is guiding and protecting everyone; He has a plan for all of us and He will reveal it as we become increasingly worthy and ready to receive His vision.
May God bless and keep you in His Grace and Mercy. Peace and Hare Krishna!! love, bruce