As we move towards the glad tidings and joy of Christmas Eve, I am reminded that our celebration of the Christ Child’s birth does not end when we leave church on Friday evening – or when the Livestream/Zoom worship service concludes. Where the season of Advent ends, the season of Christmas begins.

The season of Christmas is about remembering that even after the longest of nights, light will dawn in the morning and new life will emerge from the cold of winter. For nothing is impossible with God. Christmas is about the possibility that comes solely from the fact that God entered into our own human existence and was revealed in the Beloved Teacher who continues to call us to the love that is God. It is a possibility that is so surprising at its birth that we are caught unaware, and so are left with wonder at the simplicity of its expression in this infant child. It is a possibility that is easily symbolized by a helpless infant that has nothing of its own by which to survive; yet an infant that, because he is Immanuel, God With Us, will forever change the world and all humanity.

Christmas is hope incarnated into flesh, a hope that can be held in a parent’s arms, a hope that expresses a reality that will live beyond endings and death itself. It is this same God who has promised to be with us, with all people, with the church and with us individually, as we live in the world. It is the hope, the possibility, that springs from impossible and insignificant beginnings, infused with the power of God through the Holy Spirit, that will blossom into a light to all nations.

Yours in Christ,

Vicki McPhee