FEATHER: Creator God, we the children of your creation lift our thanksgiving for your wondrous hand in making all things new through the signs of the season. We thank you for the beauty in the blanketing snow, and the cold air which causes us to draw close to our loved ones. We especially thank you for your faithfulness and provision in the true gift of the season, in your Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in whom was revealed the truth and light of your love and peace to all nations. Open our hearts to accept your will and provision; open our eyes to see your true light, even in the darkness of this world. Grant us by your grace this day that we might play a small part in your message of hope, peace, joy and love, bless us to be a blessing to all in our journey, this day and all days. This we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.
SAGE: December is an amazing month wherein we gaze through the frosted glass of the past year; we also lift our eyes to the hope and promise of the new life to come. As the snows blanket and cover all with the sleepiness and beauty of the season, and the dark hours lengthen, we collectively yearn for the new seasons promised over the horizon of time. The true gift of the season and moment is to know the depth of God’s love to all through His Son the Christ—a Saviour who came in humility, innocence and glory to be recognized only by the open and seeking; a Saviour who came in obedience and peace to shake the foundations of the world and upset the balance of power and structure. There’s definitely a contrast there—and in the season and month before us, too, when the cold causes us to seek warmth, when the frozen beauty of the snow covers the reality of life beneath, and when there are worldly gifts that have nothing to do with the one true gift of the season in Christ.
The true gift is before us all. Do we share it with a small invitation to those around us to join us at one of the many beautiful services that will be happening this month in the church, or do we hide it away, as a blanket of snow covers the reality of life beneath, hiding truth and revealing only the surface? The gift of Christmas was meant to be shared and celebrated; the church was meant to rejoice in the new life revealed, and to tell of the love, promise, and gift given to all through the one true light of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.
A blessed Christmas and peace to all.
