Christmas 2017

CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS

            It’s Christmas again. Christmas is that irresistible time when the music, the color, the spirit of giving and the lights are felt all over the world.  Flickering candles draw us with their promise of warmth and comfort. Their light is especially significant because it proclaims the birth of Light itself in that irresistible Child. The baby in the center of it is Hope wrapped in swaddling clothes.  He draws you in and invites you to hold Him and never let go. He was born in the lowest of circumstances and drew first the lowborn shepherds to his side and then the highborn kings. His birth heralded a new age for the world.

Everything that goes to make up a perfect Christmas such as, love, peace, kindness, selflessness, and joy describe Christ.

The whole world feels that irresistible magnetism as we double our outreach, grow closer to each other in shared activities and turn our eyes and hearts to that little stable where we recognize and celebrate that Light, Hope, Peace, Joy and Redemption were born.  Worry not if others don’t recognize His presence.  He is there and remains there for all time.  As long as he lives in our hearts, Christ is in Christmas where he will remain.  We fret over the emphasis on gifts, but fail to recognize that God started it when he gifted us with Jesus.  If ever there is a time for optimism it is this time.

            I wish you all the best that Christmas can bring. I pray each day for all of you and thank God for your presence in my life.

Carol Lemelin OPA

SECOND CHANCES

SECOND CHANCES

I am sitting here on my chaise with my knee wrapped in ice and a perfectly ugly scar on my kneecap watching every single Hallmark Christmas movie.  They are a lovely departure from the Law and Order Marathons or, need I say, the endless football games.  While their themes are similar; Christmas is very special, it’s worth the efforts that go into it, it’s about family, related by blood or not, and about second chances.  As I realized this, it occurred to me that the most wonderful thing about our God is that he is a God of second chances.

I going to write something here, which will seem heretical, but I have talked to God about it often and He is not stopping me. I have always been troubled, well if I’m honest, doubtful of the story of Adam and Eve.  According to the writer of Genesis, God created Adam and Eve and gave them everything. Told them not to eat the fruit of a certain tree. They, being human, allowed themselves to be tempted and disobeyed.   According to the writer, God then banished them into the world we live in with all its trials and tribulations.  To me it feels like they were set up to fail. Here’s my problem.  The God I love, worship and obey is the same God who forgave David, over and over again for a lot more than mere disobedience.  The God who came himself to prove his endless patience, forgiveness and understanding and reinforced that by sharing the experience of death.  My God gives second chances.

Where would I be if I thought otherwise?  I believe that if Judas had not succumbed to despair and taken his own life, Jesus would have forgiven him.  As a matter of fact, how do I know that didn’t already happen?  The idea that God is so intractable that you are out with only one strike on you is part of the reason so many stay away from God.  It’s not rational to think that God changed over time and became more compassionate. because it is the eternal, steadfast, unchanging, and loving nature of God, which gives us hope in this world.  Without that assurance, we would surely perish. 

In hopes you will always trust in the steadfast God,

I ask His blessings on you all.

Carol Lemelin OPA