Friday, December 24
Isaiah 9: 2-7
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14
Writing this on a calm afternoon in early November I was thinking how different it will be when most of you will be reading this passage. Many of you will be tired and overwhelmed by the frantic preparations you have been involved in for tomorrow, Christmas Day, to make it a very special time for your family and friends. You may not even have time to read it this anyway. Well, not today.
Advent - what does it mean to us? Advent comes from the Latin word Adventus – which means coming. In the past Advent was also a time of penitence like Lent, but that does not seem to be strictly observed these days.
Have you allowed time to think about His coming and what it means to us? What a wonderful gift his birth was for us. Receiving and giving gifts is part of the Christmas tradition which we still continue.
He was born in a manger to a young unmarried girl, a lowly birth for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. A tiny, precious baby whose death as a young man at the age of 30+ years promises us eternal life and forgiveness of our sins.
Let us give thanks and join with the great army of heaven’s angels who announced Christ’s birth to the shepherds and sang:
Glory to God in the highest heaven
and peace on earth to those
with whom he is pleased!
Joyce Merrett