The first verse of Christmas song “Let It Snow” goes like this….
Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we’ve no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Great song…..and couldn’t be any more untrue!
Can I give a try at rewriting this for us this year:
Oh, the weather outside is amazingly warm,
And the fire in my fireplace is non-existent
We have lots of places to go everyday,
SO…..can Quest on Christmas Eve actually work?
Christmas Eve is a paradox for many of us. It is the culmination of an incredibly busy season of the year. There have been a million things to do, parties to attend, gifts to purchase and wrap, people to see, relatives to entertain, decorations to put out and up and food… oh the food… too much and too good! Then comes the night that has an allure of what unfortunately seems like an illusive peace. Now let’s not be disingenuous, the busyness of the season has a lot of fun attached to it. Most of the parties were fun, at least for the most part. Selecting, buying, wrapping and giving gifts can be meaningful if done well. We honestly love most of the people we are with, and the relatives… they are our family and we don’t regret that. We enjoy the beauty of the decorations and frankly the food seemed worth it at the time. But it can get to be a bit much… maybe too much. So, when we hear the angels say, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!”, we wonder if God is actually in His highest, or we doubt that peace is possible, or we wrestle with whether He is pleased with us or not… therefore, forfeiting the peace that we desire.
However, maybe letting our world slow down might help us embrace the one who is called the Prince of Peace. His voice is often quiet and easily missed by the dull roar of the cars and sirens, the music and the bells, the squabbles and conflict. We live in a world that seems to be speeding up and yet is out of control. Our own lives not only reflect the chaos of the world but often times contribute to it. That is why Christmas Eve is a night like no other. It is a night to look deeply into the eyes of those we love and those who love us and drink in the richness of ‘the way it was supposed to be’. It is a night to lay down the pressures and the demands of our daily lives and to remember the compassion of God as He sent His only Son to be ‘Emmanuel’… ’God with us’.
If in the schedule of your Christmas, and especially your Christmas Eve, you need to lay it all down and reflect on the peaceful grace that God lavished on our world, join us at 5 pm at Crestview Middle School, and we will together bow our hearts before the One who not only came ‘to be with us’, but the One who came to offer peace through His own sacrificial, selfless and unconditional love. All this adds up to a Christmas Compassion that defines and fulfills the deepest need in our hearts… and not only our hearts, but the hearts of those in the world…mand this Christmas Eve we will join together to offer peace to the children of the ‘saline’ (the salt flats) in Anse-A-Galet, on the island of La Gonave, part of the country of Haiti. Haiti is a the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. They feel like the world has moved past them and forgotten them. On the island of La Gonave the people are seen as the poor of the poor and the forgotten of the forgotten. And the people who live on the ‘saline’ are seen as the poor of the poor of the poor, the forgotten of the forgotten of the forgotten. Together we will offer what we can to these who are not forgotten by God and who can be rich in spirit as we share from what we have so they can feed hungry children more effectively. We join the billions of Christians around the world to Worship More Fully, Spend Profoundly Less, Give Sacrificially More, Love Uniquely All.