I'm sitting down at the keyboard now for just a few moments as the boys take their showers and get some clean holiday clothes on.  My two oldest are taking me to church this evening for a Christmas concert.  Well, technically I'm taking them, but I've told them they are taking me.

It hit me today how ready for Christmas I am.  I don't mean the cards (they are not addressed) or the gifts (they are not wrapped) or the cookies (they are not baked).  But I am ready for Christmas.  I am ready for the sound of an infant's cry from within a woman's arms, to break the spiritual silence of the year and usher in a season that turns hearts back to their Savior.  My heart back to my Savior.  

Our lives, our days, our years can be so busy with... O... you know... life.  But Jesus came into our world to penetrate our lives, not to sit on the sidelines of our busy-ness, awaiting the season when we stop and praise Him for coming down into our broken world.  I've tried to pursue knowing HIm throughout this whole year, I have.  And by His Grace and Goodness there has been transformation in my life and in the lives of many whom I know, love, and live with... but at Christmas there is more stopping to consider.  At Christmas we ponder as Mary did... so much.  

Salvation.  Eternity.  And our lives in the Light of Bethlehem's star.  

This Christmas already I've thought much on Christ, born both fully God and fully man.  He referred to Himself as "The Son of Man," and I am thankful that He knew this fallen world as well as He did. He walked in it and talked and touched those struggling in each new day.  He healed the sick and raised the dead, he comforted those who mourned and corrected those in need of conviction and repentance.  Day in and day out He revealed His God power from a fragile human frame.  And come Good Friday He knew deep despair as He followed obediently the will of His Father in Heaven; the ultimate sacrifice and pain.  For me.  For you.  For all mankind throughout all history.  Fully God and Fully man.

Christmas always leads me to thoughts of the cross.  Afterall, if it weren't for Easter Christmas would be just another day.  

I hope there are many songs the congregation gets to sing along with tonight.  I'm eager to raise my voice and declare back to Him how grateful I am for His Salvation, brought that first Christmas Morning, and actualized through His death on the cross and resurrection.  I want to sing my Praises to Him tonight, as I agree in song that the King of the Jews was born to bring all mankind back to the Father; redeemed and made righteous.

Merry Christmas.