In the Poverty of a Manager

This season of Christmas can be tough. So much uncertainty is all around us. So much poverty, so much sickness, and then of course, there is the divisiveness in our country and issues within the church.

It can be challenging to even decide about what to do for the holidays. Do you stay home, some even alone, or do you take the risk and spend it with love ones?  Who will want to gather together and who will be fearful and stay away. We each need to respect where the other is at

The real question is, what s God asking us to do? Where is He asking us to be?

Like everyone else, I have had to make some decisions about Christmas. I have prayed that God give me His peace and make His will known to me. He has.

In the end the place we are all called to be at Christmas is safe from the virus and all the other challenges we face. We are called in to the heart of Christ.

He has reminded me that what we are experiencing is probably not much different than the circumstances of HIs birth. He was born in the poverty of a manger. That is where we meet. In the love of God manifested to us in His Son come to earth for our salvation. Little, hidden, poor.

In the end, this may actually be the most beautiful Christmas. One immersed in the miracle of Christmas, born of the heart, truly about His great love for us. As our material things of this world are less pronounced the truly valuable mystery of Christs birth is more appreciated.

Perhaps we will understand more deeply His desire to come to earth in poverty, absent of earthly comforts, to show us we are not made for this world but for eternal life with Him. Perhaps we will enter more deeply into the gift of His life, death and resurrection. The conquering of sin, even the sin of abortion.

In the end, whether together or alone this Christmas, we can all meet in the poverty of the manger to adore Christ the Lord. That is what it is really all about.