DEVOTION FOR CHRISTMAS DAY (12/25/10)

GOD’S WORD—John 1:4-5
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.

MEDITATION
Greetings to you this Christmas Day, the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord! Wherever you may be, celebrate the message of this holy day for all the gift that it is. The light and the life of God have come together in the person of Jesus Christ. Attempts have been made to end that life and snuff out that light, but the story of the Lord Jesus – His birth, life, ministry, teachings, passion, suffering, death, and resurrection – always carries the day and gives to our own lives that hope that can truly be called eternal.

Since God loves us and tells it like it is, perhaps this Christmas can offer each of us a new opportunity to love our God and our neighbors as ourselves. Maybe we, too, can set aside the fear and tell it like it is. Let me give it a try with today’s devotional: God, I love you. Dear reader, I love you too. And here is truth about me that I wish to share: there were certain periods – long periods – in my own life where life was little more than existence. I thought, selfishly, that divine light was for someone else, and I pulled away from it. As early as five years ago, if someone were to tell me that I was going to be a pastor again and I would serve a beautiful congregation once more, I would have said that they had consumed too many adult beverages. I preferred, if you will, the darkness; I could hide and be anonymous. But the Word of God, shared and embodied through loved ones like you, created a new beginning. An existence became a life. Listlessness gave way to purpose. A job became a calling. My own darkness greeted the dawn, and my God, in Christ Jesus, became brother and friend.

O Thou boy, lying in the manger, thou art truly God who hast created me, and thou wilt not be wrathful with me because thou comest to me in this loving way – more loving cannot be imagined. If you would truly love, let him be this way in your heart.
--Martin Luther, from a 1527 Christmas Sermon

PRAYER
O God, You wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature. Grant that we may share the divine life of Him who humbled Himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

VERSE
All glory for this blessed morn
To God the Father ever be;
All praise to You, O virgin-born,
And Holy Ghost, eternally. Amen.