Amidst the craziness and commercialization of “‘tis the season”, it is easy to forget the reason why we celebrate Christmas. Being with family and perhaps attending a church service with one’s community is always a good reminder. Pastor Dan won’t mind that I use some of the thoughts from his beautiful service, so here goes:
“Jesus was God’s rescue mission.” What a great way to see Christmas in that way. Also: “God who made human beings, decided to become a human being.” But the one thought that really stayed with me, and should stay with us every day, is this beautiful verse:
John 8:12 (New International Version)
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
This light is with us, not only during Christmas, but every day, if we choose to follow Him. If we think about being in the light of day, we have no fear. But in the darkness, we grow afraid. It is very apt to remember this as we go through this beautiful and holy season, and into the new year of 2024. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realise we are experiencing uncertain and dark times.
The source of life is light. We can’t hide in the light – it is easy to hide in darkness but living in the light is living in truth. The truth is where we are before God, and Jesus exposed the darkness to heal us.
There is also joy in light – think about the feeling of sunshine on your skin, on your face. The light was given to us to put joy in our lives and hearts. Joy becomes part of our DNA.
We also learn to follow light (if you are trapped in a dark cave, instinctively we would follow the source of any light). To follow is to believe, and to trust. It is of course easy to see these words, listen to the thoughts but much harder to do in practice. There is a lot of uncertainty, anxiety, unfairness, sadness, fear, unhappiness and corruption in the world. But let us be comforted:
John 3:16 NIV
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
I want to wish all my readers a beautiful and wonderful Christmas. And for 2024, I wish for all of us courage, faith, and common sense for a happy and successful New Year, no matter how you define success
Anyway, simply thinking out loud. Thank you for being here, and if you find my Substack interesting or inspirational, please click on the 🤍button, and subscribe for free if you want to receive a notification of the next “Thinking Out Loud”.
Well said….again! 🤩