Pastor’s Corner – December 19, 2024
Dear Beloved,
How are you as we near the end of Advent - a special season of repentance, reflection, and preparation to welcome Jesus into our lives? By the time this reaches your inbox, it will be a few days until Christmas. By the time another message from me reaches your inbox, it will be 2025, so I would like to invite you to spend some time this Christmas season considering what Christmas means to you? How does the good news of Christmas impact the way you view the world and who we are? As I sit with these questions, Mary the mother of Jesus comes to mind. I appreciate how she pondered and treasured things in her heart. This year I feel enfolded by the mystery and wonder of the incarnation - that God would choose to come and live among us - to be born to a young woman and a common worker who quickly had to flee for their safety. Words fail me, when I consider that Maker of the stars and seas would choose to come and live among - to experience our pain and joy, to show us how to live as beloved and loving children of God, to show us how to live as peacemakers. In the silence that arises as written and spoken human language escapes me, I feel movement in my heart. By God’s grace, I want to grow deeper in my love for God and neighbor, and I want to share the good news of Emmanuel - God with us! I pray that everyone would know that they are never alone and that they are loved. I pray that you would know that you are never alone - you are loved. You are called by name. You are embraced and accepted by the Creator of the sky and the soil. May you feel the hope, love, joy, and peace of Jesus this Christmas and throughout Christmastide, and may the good news of God with us encourage you each and every day.
With the hope, love, joy, and peace of the Creator of the heavens and the earth~
Sarah
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them, 19 and Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them. Luke 2:15-20
