Light white candle - The Christ Candle
Today’s the day! Christmas is finally here!! If you have a house full of children, then you were most likely up late last night, putting toy bikes and kitchen sets together, wrapping those gifts that were hidden all over the house and placing them under the Christmas tree. You’ve probably been up since before daylight with children or grandchildren awake and excited to see what’s waiting for them under the tree.
As exhausted as you may be this morning, you’d gladly go without sleep and put together hundreds of riding toys just to see the look of joy and amazement cross the faces of your darlings. Why? Because of the love that you have for your children and grandchildren. There truly is nothing like it. Even when they are fussy or disrespectful or hurting and lash out rebelliously, you love them and delight in giving them good gifts. God loves His children infinitely more than we could possibly love, so much so that His love for us came down at Christmas.
* Read 1 John 4:7-21
Love Came Down at Christmas, Christina Georgina Rossetti (1885)
Love came down at Christmas,Love all lovely, love divine;Love was born at Christmas,Star and angels gave the sign.Worship we the Godhead,Love incarnate, love divine;Worship we our Jesus:But wherewith for sacred sign?Love shall be our token,Love shall be yours and love be mine,Love to God and to all men,Love for plea and gift and sign.
In this disarmingly simple poem, Christina Rossetti managed to evoke the emotions of the manger scene in Bethlehem without actually describing it, yet moving the reader deeper into it.
The phrase “Love all lovely, Love divine” has the intimacy of a welcome whispered to a newborn baby and simultaneously reveals the unfathomable mystery of God at work. Rossetti’s lines, suggesting 1 John 4:7-11, somehow get closer to the human experience of the first Christmas and the bond between the holy child and his mother.
The second verse ends with an archaic phrase, “but wherewith for sacred sign?” It echoes the end of the first verse, “Star and angels gave the sign.” A sign of God’s presence in Bethlehem was given to the wise men by a star and to the shepherds by singing angels. But how will that sign now be shown? How is God’s love incarnate through Jesus revealed today? God’s love, which we are given and in turn give to others, is the sign that God is present now, in His people, His church, as in Bethlehem.
Some of us are ending this Advent season with great joy and thankfulness, enjoying the peace, hope and love that God has lavished on us through His Son. And some of us are barely hanging on to Jesus through overwhelming waves of grief, despair, failure, broken relationships or unfulfilled dreams. We are in the dark shadows that death casts, paralyzed by fear, unable to see the way out.
Regardless of what our circumstances or emotions are screaming, we believe the truths of 1 John 4: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him…if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another…if we love one another, God remains in us and His love is made complete in us.” (from verses 9-12)
* Listen to/Sing Love Came Down at Christmas with Lyrics (Choral)
* Reflect
* Why do we love our children, our spouses, our parents, siblings, extended family, church family and community. “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) How can you be an extension of God’s love for you to those around you today?
* Pray and receive the great love of your Father God, manifest in the sending of His Son, our Savior and King, Jesus!
A Christmas Day Prayer
Adapted from Psalm 188:24, John 1:1-18 and Psalm 19:14
Father God, we thank you and praise you for this Christmas Day, the day that you have made. We rejoice and are glad in it. We rejoice that the Word, Logos, Jesus Christ was there in the beginning with you as a full member of the Divine Trinity. All things were created through Him, your Word, and apart from Jesus not one thing was created that has been created. He created the womb of the darling mother who would carry Him, bear Him and parent Him.
Jesus, today we celebrate you especially because in You are life and light. Your light shines in the darkness and no amount of darkness can overcome it. We acknowledge that when You condescended to the world You created, most, if not all of the world did not recognize You. The blinders were even on Your chosen people, but to all who did receive You, You gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in Your name, born again in their spirit by God’s intention and power.
Jesus, today we reflect on the night so long ago when You, the Word, became flesh and dwelt among us. Through the gospel writings of your apostles, we have beheld Your glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. In Your kindness and sacrifice, You have revealed the fullness of God and it is marvelous in our eyes.
We worship You today and everyday, as God’s Promise Through Generations, right on time, in ways we could never imagine. Be glorified in our lives, our relationships and our priorities. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and Redeemer.
In Your Holy Name We Pray, Amen.
