Christmas Day, 2025

Christmas has been different in this decade of my life.  There is a tree up and decorated in the gathering room of the house this year, but such has not always been the case in these recent years.  Actually, this is the first time in a long time that a tree with its twinkling lights has stood within eye sight.  Yet, I must confess to some memorable Christmas moments.  I had hardly gotten into my seventies when I offered my mother her last communion here on earth.   A few years later, I did the same for my Dad early in the days of December.  Last year I found myself in the hospital offering the holy Sacrament on Christmas Eve to a man who would live here among us five more days.   

Yesterday, I was provided the blessing of sharing the Holy Sacrament with a small church community just up the road from here who have enabled me to experience community since I left the pulpit for the farm.  They are special folks.  I have been blessed by them in more ways than I can say, "Thank you, Lord."  One of the things Christmas holds out to us is an awareness of belonging to a loving and accepting community.   Perhaps, it is a natural result of the Christ coming into our world via Bethlehem's wooden cradle and leaving it via a wooden cross.  

He came to be One among us.  "Dwelt among us," is what the Word declares. (John 1:14).  He came to show us the way Home, to show us who we are, and to help us reclaim the purpose for which we live.  He came seeking us with a love that would hold nothing more precious than being poured out as love for us.  He came to draw us unto Himself, to let us know we are not here alone, and to enable us to re-claim our place in that invisible and eternal community He spoke of us as the Kingdom of God.  The peace of Christ be with you.