A Fancy Christmas Miracle

Sunday, my pastor, Roger Nix, delivered a great message. One aspect of the miracle of Christmas is the whole "Immanuel" idea, which means "God with us". One of the most comforting things in life is when a friend can say, "me too!". When God came to earth at Christmas, he experienced the full range of the human experience, which means our God can say "me too!" He understands the complexities, trials, temptations, and heartaches of life as well as the great joys, miracle of family, siblings, and relationship. I serve a God that can say "me too".

When Micah and I went to Uganda this past summer, I found a nativity set made out of corn husks and miscellaneous items gathered from a field. I purchased it at a cafe that would go to support widows, orphans and missionaries in the area. This is my fancy reminder of Christ's humble entrance to our world. I love looking at this set and remembering God's grace in my life, his goodness and abundance to me, and that there is much more to life than just my existence in America- there are widows, orphans, missionaries, and people that fill this planet and Christ came for all of us.



The other part of Roger's message, and the message I see in my simple nativity set, is that it is us who are now responsible to be the living embodiment of Christ in the world. Not in the everyone is a deity way, but in that we can all say, "me too, I understand", and then we can help. When we pray, "Lord help my neighbor find a friend," God may say, "that is what you are there for." We are the physical hands and feet of Christ, and what better time to remember that God came to give and provide for everyone than at Christmas time.

I hope you all have a wonderful and Merry Christmas! I promise my next posts will be much more fun and fancy- full of pictures of treasure hunts, mermaid dress-up parties, and Cinderella puzzles.