December 17, 2020 - Advent Devotion
Thank you to one and all who shared in our Drive Through Donation & Silent Night Event last night!
Thank you for your generosity, and for sharing in the season of giving!
Hark! The herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King,
Peace on earth and mercy and mild,
God and sinners reconciled.
Joyful, all you nations rise;
Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic hosts proclaim,
Christ is born in Bethlehem!
Hark! The herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King!
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
As we near the end of the third week of Advent, we take a look at another old time children's Christmas classic.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a great story of acceptance. At the heart of this story is Rudolph who is so different from everyone else. Later in the story, Rudolph and his friends find themselves on the Island of Misfit Toys. By story's end, Santa is stopping on the island to help all these unwanted toys to find a home.
As children of God, we can often look at ourselves and think we are misfits. We think we are so unworthy, that we have sinned more than anyone else, that we deserve not being accepted by others, that we deserve not being wanted, not being wanted even by our God.
By the end of another children’s Christmas classic, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” including the Peanuts gang, even Charlie Brown, even a lonely tree, are blessed to discover, the true meaning of Christmas, and that they, too, have a place, in the story. Truly the story, truly Christmas, would not be the same without them!
Christmas is God's gift, "God and sinners reconciled!" We have been baptized with a baptism of repentance, of change, of reconciliation, a baptism by the One greater than you and me, by the One who is greater than John, a baptism in the power of the Holy Spirit, a baptism that tells us no matter how different we are, no matter how sinful we see ourselves, God tells us He wants us in His story, He wants us for Christmas, for all eternity! God makes known, loud and clear: Christmas would not be the same without us!
Let us pray: God who accepts all, I often see myself only as a misfit. It is easy for me to feel unworthy, as if I am the only one who is different, as if I am the only one no one really wants. Announce to me, reconciliation is at hand, I am accepted just as I am forever; I am wanted and needed, to make the story complete, thanks to every sign of the One who is greater than all, in the One who has come at Christmas, in the One who will come again. Amen.