The Reason For the Season

“Jesus is the reason for the season“ is a saying we are all familiar with hearing in December. This year however we well might hear people saying “COVID is the reason for the season”, the reason for in-person shopping being discouraged, for the lack of office parties and other Christmas gatherings, as well as for not celebrating with family on Christmas Day. And yes, even. (or especially) in our churches where with attendance being severely limited, there have been no Carol services, no pageants, and no packed Christmas Eve service planned for.

Christmas Day looks very different this year in our house, and I suspect in yours as well. There are very few decorations out because with no one coming into see them, why bother? I would just have to put them away again by January 6th! While we meet friends on ZOOM I miss actually seeing them face-to-face. I could go in and on, but you can fill in the rest yourselves. So some might say that Chrismas is ruined this year. But in reality I think this is perhaps the best Christmas I have known.

The birth of Jesus was life-changing bringing hope to the people living around Nazareth and Jerusalem.

The COVID vaccine is life-changing bringing hope to people throughout the world.

Last Sunday, Love was the theme of many of the sermons in our churches and as a well known hymn reminds us, ‘Love came down at Christmas’. It is this love that we have been encouraged to show for the past 11 months as we struggled with the COVID virus’ teaching that we are to wear masks not to protect ourselves but because it protects everyone else. We are encouraged to put others ahead of ourselves, as it is only by doing that that we will all be safe. We need to save others to save ourselves. In other words we need to LOVE. We have been called to live the message of Advent and Christmas all year! Now we are also living with the hope that the presence of a vaccine is giving us.

Surely this has to be the best Christmas ever!

Comments

Judy ImrieDecember 24, 2020 at 9:05 AM
Well said Lynn! I woke up moping because nothing is the same but maybe, for once, that is a good thing. I miss all of our decorations being up etc. etc. and our crazy mixed up plans change with each new recommendation....now down to 'drive through gift giving wearing Santa Claus masks'...we canned the turkey on the patio gathered around heaters due to rain and snow predictions. Nearly as inconvenient as giving birth in a stable...when all the glitz and glamour of the season are stripped away...Love remains. May we all sense His Presence in deeper ways as Emmanuel Emmanuel, God With Us, God With Us...becomes the rightful centrepiece of the season.

judyimrie247@gmail.com
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