“Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.” Luke 1:78-79

The above verse are from an amazing prophecy from John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah. It’s a beautiful picture of what was about to take place in the life of John and then the Messiah, Jesus. This time of year is always special. After all we are celebrating one of the most incredible miracles EVER, the God of the universe wrapping Himself in human flesh and becoming one of His creations. Wow. I mean really...wow.

But (let’s be honest) how many times in the past month have we really sat in the quietness of our lives (if we even have any) and meditated on this fact? Yeah...not many times for me either. In fact, as the 25th draws closer and closer the stress level increases and the money decreases and the thought of the glorious God in a humble stable who will then go on to die to redeem mankind begins to disappear from our radar.

Now, before I find myself calling on all Christians to move our celebration of Christ’s birth to sometime in February...let me get to something that hit me as I began writing that last paragraph. This losing of focus during Christmas is not just a December issue...it effects the other 11 months too. How many times this past year did we get stressed and freaked out and find ourselves forgetting the One who bled and died so that we may have eternal life? In CM this is something that happens too...because after watching 20 hyper kids for two hours it’s hard to maintain the attitude of “I’m doing this for the Lord who loves me beyond measure” and rather it downgrades to “GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!!”.

This week in staff devotions pastor David mentioned the verse above and made the comment that while this verse was speaking of Jesus being the light of the world...our Lord then handed that off to us, as His church. We are to stand as a beacon of truth and love in the midst of a dark and hurting world. The only way we can do that is to focus on the One who provides the light. We produce nothing on our own, but when we are focused on the love of our soul we shine like the stars in the heavens and cause people to say, “they must have been with Jesus.”

So this Christmas as you fellowship with loved ones as well as tolerate hard-to-love ones focus on our Lord and what He has done. Don’t just see a manger scene and go “how sweet” but open the scriptures and soak in the amazing miracle of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Immanuel (God with us) has come and He now sits at the right hand of the Father after conquering sin and death and calls us to shine with the brilliance of a billion Christmas lights to display His glory to a lost world. So celebrate Christmas this year with a renewed passion. May you all have a wonderful Christmas and thank you for being a light to the children we serve. You all are an amazing blessing to me and my family. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!