Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope that this finds all of you enjoying the holiday season. I happen to now be sitting at the table at my in-laws kitchen after a rousing game of phase 10 (which took 2.5 hours to finish, Carmen!). Earlier today we went to Christmas eve service at the church my in-laws go to.

Last year I remember seeing a movie about Mary and Joseph and the events leading up to Jesus' birth. It was long and I am not real sure what the point was other than focusing on Mary. We sang "Mary did you know". It was a different approach to the Christmas season. This year as we went we were wondering if we were going to watch another movie. Sure enough, we did.

The movie this year, however, was much shorter and just covered the basic facts. We still sang "Mary did you know" but she did not seem to be the focus this year. What stood out to me this time was "O little town of Bethlehem".

After we sang the song, Pastor Phil told us to reread verse 4 and that it should be a prayer to all of us. I am amazed how God has lately been getting me to really listen to the words of the songs that I hear all the time (read I can only imagine below). Here is verse 4:

O Holy child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today.

Wow. That should be our desire. All the gifts we get each other and get from one another can not compare to that gift that He has given us.

Descend to us, we pray. In my reading I have just been learning that God always shows up when people pray. So here it is in this song. When God is trying to tell you something, He really hits you with it.

Cast out our sin and enter in. That's all we have to do. Just ask him to enter in and all of our sin will be cast away. Other than asking, there is nothing else required of us. What an amazing free gift. One size fits all, it is in the perfect color and it is easy to use. I pray for those of you that have not experienced a relationship with Jesus Christ to take advantage of that free gift offer. If you have received the gift, take it out of the box and start using it.