Week 4, Wednesday: Another Arrival

Read Revelation 22:16-20

It might seems strange to some people to spend the month of December ancitipating and preparing for a birth that happened 2000 years ago. Why bother rehashing details and events that are so well known? Why take the time to wait for old news?

Part of the answer is that the arrival of God's Son in Bethlehem has so many parallels to his arrival in our hearts today. Reflection helps us make it personal.

But there's something more, too. Because there will be a second arrival. Christ promised to come back. Grasping the wonder of his birth should serve to make us long for his return even more. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

O God, our loving Father,
help us rightly to remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and the worship of the wise men...
May the Christmas morning
make us happy to be thy children
and the Christmas evening
bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts.,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson