Advent Anticipation: The Eve of Christmas Eve

Stone painting by Lin Wellford http://www.linwellford.com

O holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend on us, we pray

This is the season to focus on the advent of that One and Only Child in whom God descends to earth naked and disarmed--a defenseless Lover and Lamb unwelcomed in the town of his ancestry. "He came to his own, and his own received him not."

Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born in us today

In a world of inequity and injustice, the Bethlehem baby comes needy and hungry, utterly dependent on the care of a first-time teen mother and her ordinary working-class husband. Yet this is the wonder of Christmas, the focus of our songs and of our celebrations in this holy season.

We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell

This is truly a time when God tugs hard at our hearts and calls us to care deeply and provide generously for all the newborn of the world, red, brown, yellow, black and white, for all of the Afghans, Hondurans, Haitians, Congolese, Palestinians, Syrians and others for whom there is no room except in stable-like shelters, tents and tenements. "As you have done to the least of these, you have done it unto me."

O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord, Immanuel

May we all love as God loved, live as Christ lived, so Christmas will not have come in vain, so all will will be blessed, and there may yet come "peace on earth, goodwill to all."

From all of us, our family and our house church family--our love, prayers and blessings.