Christmas Present
It’s December! That means that we can fully get the countdowns going. Christmas is coming! It’s time to think about presence. Wait a minute, shouldn’t that be “presents?” Well, certainly it can be a wonderful thing to exchange gifts, but we also know that this is not the heart of what we celebrate at Christmas. What we are truly celebrating is the incarnation, the good news of God with us. In other words, we celebrate God’s presence with us. We celebrate that in Jesus we see that God is truly present in our world. God is embodied, with us, and present. Thus we celebrate at Christmas that God’s presence; we celebrate that God is with us now, in the present.
There has certainly been some consternation in some quarters that supply chain issues will affect the giving of presents at Christmas this year. Yet we can rest assured in the good news that there will be no shortage of presence this year. God will indeed be present to us at Christmas this year, just as God is truly present to us throughout the year. In our celebrations this year, then, let us be sure to take some time to sit in the moment, soaking in that joyous message. Now, in the present, God is present to us in the flesh, in Jesus. That is truly the greatest present we could receive.
—Pastor Eric