For Christians around the world, tomorrow starts twelve days of celebration, remembrance, and prayers.
Christmas doesn’t have to be one day, or just about gifts, or even family meals – it can be about a love that’s stronger than death, a peace that endures all tempests, a grace which undergirds every step, a joy which embraces all sorrows, all grief.
Christmas is about Christ Jesus our Lord of the Heavens and Earth, born in obscure poverty to an outcast and oppressed family that faced political exile, assassination attempts, and disgrace – yet – the will to powerfully heal, forgive, instruct, correct, transform – marks the real reason for the arrival of God as a wailing and wiggly baby boy.
Christmas can be more than forced smiles, lonely loneliness, more than chronic disappointments and misunderstandings Christmas can be about Someone who knows your heart, your desires, your darkness, your sins, our failings, our aspirations, our gifts and promises to use it for what is Good, True, Just, and Beautiful.
Christmas is twelve days that transcend the end of one year and the start of another, it is a dozen nights to rest, reflect, and reset over what matters most – God is with us, Jesus is the Christ of Christmas who saves us from our wrongdoings and inspires us to live brightly, like the stars above us.
For all of us who associate with the YMCA in any way, may our hearts, our spirits, our lives be a blessing, for all.
#Christmas #pray #love #joy #peace #faith #ymca
