My dear friends,

This is an thrilling time of year!  Stores and homes are decorated and sights, smells, and advertisements entice us to purchase gifts for our loved ones.

One year, when our children were very young, We were busily preparing for Christmas. We bought the tree and decorated it.  We put decorations all over the house, baked cookies and of course, shopped.

One night, my son, was looking at the gifts surrounding the tree, carefully picking up each one and asking me who was going to receive the present. This went on for some time, and then, finally, he asked me, "Daddy, where is the gift for baby Jesus?"  I paused, really hearing what he had asked of me, realizing this precious child knew how we should be celebrating this holy season.   Over the years, I often relive that moment and think about what my gift to Jesus will be that year.

God has given us so many gifts - this beautiful world in which we live.  He has given us family and friends with whom we share our lives.  He has given us smiles, words, love, and goodness to enjoy and to share.  He has given us a free will to make choices, many choices.  God has given us the gift of life.

As I try to grasp those thoughts in this season of celebrating the birth of God's son, my question to myself is what gift am I giving to Jesus this year?

Will I give him my hurts so he can comfort me?
Will I give him my angers and hurts so he can purge them me from them?
Will I give him my pride and selfishness?
Will I give him my love so that I may love others as He asks me to?
Will I give him my time, energy, and strengths to do his work here in my community?
Will I give him my life so that I may be Christ to others?

In the midst of your hustle and bustle and the preparations and commitments that the season of Christmas puts upon each of us, I ask you, "What will your gift to baby Jesus be this year?

Pastor Tom

From Heaven on High I Come to You

From heaven on high I come to you.
I bring a story good and new;
Of goodly news so much I bring;
Of it I must both speak and sing.

To you a child is come this morn,
A child of holy maiden born,
A little babe so sweet and mild—
Your joy and bliss shall be that child.

It is the Lord Christ, our own God.
He will ease you of all your load;
He will himself your Savior be,
And from all sinning set you free.

Take note, my heart; see there!  Look low;
What lies then in the manger so?
Whose is the lovely little child?
I is the darling Jesus-child.

Dear little Jesus! In my shed,
Make thee a soft, white little bed.
And rest thee in my heart’s low shrine,
That so my heart be always thine.

                           Martin Luther

Scripture Reading:   John 1:6-12   There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which
enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth.  And we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son.

My dear friends,

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us full of grace and truth.” There are very few days when these treasured words do not ring in my heart. In Genesis the writer declares that God spoke creation into existence.  John says that the Words God spoke were none other than Jesus.  Jesus and the Father are inextricably joined together.  Jesus is the Word that defines the Father.  Jesus is God enfleshed, incarnate.  Christmas is joy filled because God has been joined to humankind.  God is joined to you.  This Advent season, open your heart to the Word who wants to speak in your life.  And the Word became flesh and lived within you.

God go with you,
Pastor Tom