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The Upload

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I pray you have had a blessed week.

This past Wednesday night, we gathered in our sanctuary for our last Advent mid-week service. It seems like Advent just began, and now here we are about to celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent this Sunday, and by this time next week we will have already celebrated Christmas Day. Wow!

When we gathered this past Wednesday evening, in the midst of our worship time, we did something incredible that we have done now for four years. In the midst of worship, the entire community got up and helped fill over 40 boxes with food so that on Thursday morning we could hand out these holiday meals, complete with a turkey and all the trimmings, to families in need. I cannot describe the joy I felt as I watched people smiling and having so much fun preparing this generous gift for those who have asked for a little help this holiday season.

For those people who came to receive these boxes filled with a holiday meal, this was a huge gift, but for most of us who helped put them together, it was just a small piece of our lives that we were sharing, just a little gift to let them know they are not alone in this world and that we want to walk with them as they seek to better their lives.

This is the same message that we will hear this Sunday. It’s the message Mary received when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David” (Luke 1:30-32). In a world that was in need of something great, something powerful, something that would bring peace to a violent world, God went to Mary and said, I am coming to you, I may look small, I may appear weak, but, I will walk with you, and all people, as you seek to better your life. In the midst of this violent, unsettled world, God came in the flesh, and he has never left. The Messiah has come, he is present, and he will come again.

This is what we ought to remember as we continue to prepare for Christmas. As we continue our decorating, as we continue sending our Christmas cards, as we continue shopping for gifts, we ought to remember we are doing all this because God sent us a little gift over 2000 years ago that came and brought hope into a hopeless world. That hope is Jesus!

Have a Merry Christmas!

Shalom,

Pastor Dave

Tags: Weekly Word