Reflections

My Dear Friends,

As Christmas fast approaches I find myself reflecting on that first Christmas night more than 2000 years ago, and reminding myself of the circumstances into which the Lord of my life was born. There was nothing sweet and beautiful, at least by our contemporary standards, about that moment that would change the course of human history.

His parents were temporarily homeless and unmarried, wandering through

an unfamiliar city. His birth place smelled of animals and their leftovers. Their country had ceased to be an independent nation, and were controlled by an occupying army. Shortly after Jesus’s birth Mary and Joseph were forced into exile as immigrants, fleeing for their lives from a violent and brutal regime.

It was into this brutal and painful moment that God chose to enter human history. There were safer, more beautiful and more “appropriate” settings for the Son of God to be born, but it was not to be. It was as if God was saying to the world then, and ever since, I will come among you, not just in your beauty and joy, but in your pain and sorrow, in the dirty and soiled moments of your life. You will find me, not just in your well organized and well functioning life, but also in your less than well put together moments. And just when things seem so very out of control for you and those you love, I will be for you Immanuel, God with us.

We will all be bearing many things when we gather Christmas Eve (5:30pm) at that little church on North Main. Some of us will be quite full, some of us will know a certain emptiness and there will be much in between. But in the miracle that is the Incarnation we will each know him in simple bread and wine and in the fellowship of a community that dares to say, “We believe…!”

May this Christmas bless you with a sense of Jesus’s presence, and may you be forever surprised and delighted at where he is found!

With great joy,

Duncan

(601)260-1937

Dmgrayiii@gmail.com