Dear friends,

     Christmastime.  It's almost here!  It'll soon be time to sing carols, to decorate our homes, and to prepare our hearts again for the coming of the Christ child.  Do you know this one?
     Child, for us sinners
     poor and in the manger,
     we would embrace thee
     with love and awe.
     Who would not love thee,
     loving us so dearly?
     O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him,
     O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.    
     This is the fifth verse of O Come, All Ye Faithful.  That's okay if you don't recognize it.  I'm sure you know the first verse, though.  In fact, many people would never step through the doorway of a church throughout their lives may know the first verse.  It's familiar.  It's played and sung everywhere. 
     But this verse takes us a little deeper into the Christmas story.  What would you have done if you were in that stable 2,004 years ago?  Would you have stood there and sung all the Christmas carols you know?  Would you take a picture of the holy family and bring it home, displaying it only a few weeks out of the year?  Would you explain that if Jesus is a good little baby, "Santa" will bring him lots of gifts?
     Or would your heart be broken?  Would you take off our coat and give it to the cold child?  Would you take what little food you had and give it to the hungry mother?  Would you stand outside the window, or would you enter and embrace the anxious father?
     Jesus, in the song, is a newborn child.  Young children love unconditionally.  And Jesus loves unconditionally.  But, as the fifth verse of a favorite song tell us, we need to take the first step.  We need to have our hearts broken for this innocent child.  We need to love him, even as he loves us.
     The beauty of Christmas is that it is personal.  It's God's entry into our world.  And what we would have done to offer comfort and love over 2,000 years ago, had we been there, can still be offered today.  We can reach out to God's children - young and old - with the love and compassion of that trusting newborn child.  Today, we can offer food and warmth and an embrace.  Today, we can do for others what Jesus would do for us!  Let's not see this Christmas season only as a sacred time for ourselves, but as a time when Jesus invites us into the lives of those around us - through caring, compassion and love.
     My family and I wish you a blessed Christmas,

Pastor Jon West