Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels;
O come, let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”
It’s been quite a year and it is still going.
I know that for many reasons. But I just realized another.
Lynda and I always take our two granddaughters, Hannah and Ellie, to the annual Christmas performance at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Florida.
The tradition usually includes not only attending the Christmas pageant as the guests of our dear friend and Senior Pastor at Idlewild, but also spending the night and then Christmas shopping together during one of the days while there.
It was a tradition which began in 2008 with our first attendance at the Christmas performance. Even though the church instituted some important measures this year to protect attendees and performers, with my bride’s surgery last year, we will stay home this time.
Yet despite all that has occurred this year—personally and around our nation and world—we are about to celebrate the most important moment in history when a child, like none other, came into the world for you and for me.
Because, no matter what is going on in our lives, the Good News is that we are always and forever called to something more important.
Called to something special happening again at this time of year.
Something holy.
Something eternally significant.
Something eternally transformational and life-changing for us all.
It’s Christmas and we are all being called to the manger once again.
The manger in the stable where the Christ Child was born for you and for me over two-thousand years ago. The manger which our two precious granddaughters focused their attention on during the annual Christmas programs we would attend.
The manger holding the Babe of Bethlehem—born in a stable, behind an inn, in the little town of Bethlehem.
It was a life-changing, eternally transformational and world-changing moment way back then, and it can be for each of us again.
How are you doing? Maybe going through some ups and downs.
It’s Christmas. We are being called to visit the manger again—holding the Christ Child ever so gently and securely.
Are you headed to the manger?
And what should you do when you get there?
In the tradition of the familiar Christmas carol above, what if we simply did what the words of that carol suggested—
“O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”
Yes, that, as He lay in the manger.
A moment, and a Christ Child, which will make all the difference in your life.
In His Name–Scott
