Beloveds in Christ:
I write to send you warm greetings this Christmas. I trust that you are surrounded by the blessings that the season brings–music, color, people, gifts, and lights in the night. Some of you have set aside time for special worship and Advent devotions; folks from all three conferences enjoyed three lovely Wednesday mornings online together, in addition to the activities of your local church.
During these holy days, we often feel our hearts breaking open simultaneously with joy and grief. We feel keenly the need and violence of the world, and many of you are spending your time, prayers, and money to serve others this season. There is so much we do not understand and have a hard time seeing past. “The hopes and fears of all the years” are a real thing.
Yet this is an opportunity for us to claim again our part in the good news of the Incarnation. Heaven touched earth in the flesh of the baby Christ, and poets and singers ever since have tried to express what that means. But one thing we can know is that his incarnation is an invitation to us, to speak and act as his body, to serve the way he served, to be love, active in the world, with skin on.
This is our reason for being the church. The scriptures tell us of people astounded at the news of a lowly birth announced by the angels and heavens themselves. My hope for us is that we too will allow ourselves to be amazed by the glory of the Lord shining round about us and then to testify, with everything we have, to what we know.
I am grateful for the privilege of being a part of this living, loving body of Christ with you.
Grace and peace,
Laura Merrill