just for you

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

There is an excitement at seeing your own name on the tag attached to the ribbon that wraps the brightly decorated package - whether or not you give any credence to the commercial christmas elf.
Someone loved you enough to create or find something that they believed and hoped would bless you, that communicated how much they cared for you.
You don’t have to do anything special, you don’t have to pass any tests, you don’t have to follow some rule or code. It’s just that there is this relationship in which you are accepted as you are, including the understanding that you’re not perfect; you matter to someone, warts and all. And the gift is a way for them to tell you that you’re a person of surprising value to them.
They think about you with love and appreciation, they want the best for you, they enjoy being your friend, being with you, around you.
So you too have thought carefully about what you’d like to give them, or do for them, to affirm their personhood and the value of your relationship with them...so they’ll find a gaudily wrapped package, with a card naming them as the loved recipient.
This is a picture of a mind-blowing and eternal reality; that we are thoughtfully and extravagantly loved by the Creator of our very lives, that He seeks for our company and that He wants us to become aware of how much He cares for us and has an almost unbelievable plan for us, both as individuals and as a community, a family of His loved ones.
Just as we would be offended if a loved one tried to pay us for the gift we had so lovingly sought or created for them because the cost is part of the love we are offering, so God does not expect or seek for payment from us for the astonishing gift He has for us. The truth is we couldn’t even begin to earn that gift even if we had a million lifetimes in which we unerringly worked to persuade God that we deserved His kindness and grace.
Because it’s a gift His love is free, it’s just for you...get it!

anticipation

our series for Advent and Christmas is called
The Gift.
What follows are the bulletin inserts called Pete's Page:

"You better watch out You better not cry You better not pout I'm telling you why Santa Claus is coming to town He's making a list, Checking it twice; Gonna find out who's naughty or nice. Santa Claus is coming to town"

Advent is a time of anticipation, of having something to look forward to - which at this time is not the same for many of our fellow citizens as it is for us. For many of them it’s about the stress of finding gifts for hard-to-please people, planning to feed a family invasion from all over the country, and just plain coping with all the commercially communicated stress. So they make lists that reveal what they’re anticipating, what they’re hoping for. I know they make lists cos the woman I live with and our mothers did the same.
So what are you hoping for this advent and Christmas season? Is there a gift that you’d been hoping someone who cares for you would buy? Is there some family member you’d not seen for more than a year that you would love to come home this time? Is there some family grief that you’re hoping you’ll be able to handle, perhaps even ignore, as you and the rest of the family try to celebrate the season? Is there a relationship you kind of hope might be rescued in the spirit of a season of good will? What’s on the wish list of your heart?
Can I ask if you’ve asked the true Lord of Christmas for the fulfillment of your heart’s wish-list?
This season is rally about us preparing our hearts for the wonder of a great miracle, whereby the God who dreamt of and fashioned the whole Cosmos became clothed in human skin, complete with nose, eyes, a loudly complaining mouth and an unreliable digestive system. It is also about the belief that because of this God-man there is hope beyond hope that at some point everything that’s wrong with the world will be set right and at peace.
That’s where the hard-to-find peace and hope of the season is.
In His unrelenting grip
Pete