Christmas Eve 2020
We’re almost there! Close to the day we celebrate the birth of a baby who grew to give us a new vision of God – and hope for the future. Not just our future but for the future of humankind. And, we may ask, what is that vision, what is that hope?
That God is all embracing, that each one of us has value, equal value. And that hope? That through God’s grace we will transform that vision into reality. True, at Christmastime, we usually want to just bask in the glow of carols and warm feelings, but the vision and hope tells us to be God’s presence in the world.
We often think that’s really impossible. But it’s not. God’s presence reveals itself through Christmas and the day after and the day after….just as we live Christmas and the day after and the day after…
Prayer for the Day
Come, gracious God, open your word to us, who seek your face and truth
Let us seek your truth and know your ways.
Come, saving God, open your ways to us, who seek to follow you.
Let us follow your ways embracing all of your creation.
Empower us to know your truth and follow your ways
So that your kingdom of peace and justice will be established.
In the name of him who reflect your face and your truth,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Peace on earth will come to day when we live Christmas every day.
- Helen Steiner Rice, writer
Christmas is not only a season of rejoicing but of reflection.
- Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear!”
Here is your God who will come with vengeance and recompense.
God will save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped,
And the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy,
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert
And he burning sands shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.
- Isaiah 35: 3-7