A personal and physical Christmas! (Pastor's notes)

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For the 12th Dec 2010 bulletin



A personal and physical Christmas!

Matthew 1:23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us."

Here’s a Christmas story from my files (abridged)…

Back during World War II, four young American soldiers who had been on the front lines of battle for some time, were sent back away from the fighting to a small French village for a little R & R. As it was Christmas Eve, they began to discuss how they would like to spend Christmas. One of the soldiers said, “You know, as we were coming into town earlier today, I noticed an orphanage on the outskirts of the village. Why don’t we go there in the morning and take some Christmas joy to those children?” They all liked the idea, so they went out and bought all kinds of gifts and early the next morning, they showed up at the front door of the orphanage with a wonderful variety of Christmas presents for all the children.

The orphanage director was pleased and all the children were delighted as they opened their gifts. All the children that is, except for one 5 or 6 year old little girl who stood sadly and quietly off to the side. One of the soldiers noticed this and he asked the orphanage director about the little girl. “O, bless her heart,” said the director, “We just got her last week. Both of her parents were killed in a car wreck. There was no one to take her in, so we brought her here.”

The soldier went over to the little girl and gently he said to her, “It’s Christmas morning and we have wonderful Christmas presents here: toys, clothes, candy, food, books, puzzles. Which would you like? What do you want most for Christmas?” And the little girl said, “I want somebody to hold me.”

An integral part of the Christmas story is that God sent His Son into the world to save us and be with us! It was a personal and physical expression of God’s love. May God grant us opportunities to be personally and physically present for someone this Christmas!

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