A Christmas Carol: INTRO

It’s that time of year again, a time of gathering together as families and friends and communities to celebrate Christmas.  To us, in our Crosswalk communities of faith, that means taking time to reflect on the incredible story of a God who loved us so much that He didn’t abandon us to suffer the consequences of our own choices; rather, He came down to rescue us and offer a better end to our story than the one we chose.

This year, I invite you to begin this holiday season with some child-like wonder.  I’m not sure if you grew up in a home where Christmas was celebrated or not, but I did and it was magical.  I grew up with both the Jesus story, and the story of St Nick, and my mind was full of all the wide-eyed wonder you’d expect from a child.  From the first snowfall, to decorating the Christmas tree, to listening to stories around the fire, to my favorite cookies that were made only once a year, to watching the night-sky as I imagined the star the wise men followed or what the shepherds must have seen when the angel chorus arrived, to Mary and Joseph holding the Son of God in their own hands.  It’s all so wonderful.

As part of all those wonderful Christmas stories, this year we’re going to look not just at the birth accounts of the Savior, but at the whole of our story; from even before Genesis through to Revelation.  And we will do so spring boarding off the famous story written in 1843 by Charles Dickens called, A Christmas Carol.

If you don’t know the story, A Christmas Carol begins with a death and forces the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, to evaluate his life.  As a part of this journey, Scrooge is given an odd gift; he’s able to explore his past, present, and future.  He’s able to remember what happened to him as a child and how it shaped him.  Then he gets to see his present with a view of who he has become; a crotchety old man who cares about little else than making a profit.  Along the way, however, it seems that this crotchety old man wants to be something more, do something more, but what? How? Finally, Scrooge gets the opportunity to see what his future will be should he continue down his current life path.  When he wakes up from this dream, he is convinced; he must change.  He chooses to be different.  You might even say, he repents and becomes a new creation, one who celebrates the joy of Christmas by taking care of others.

In a similar fashion, we will look at the thread of the Christ story, and our story, by looking all the way back to Christmas past, before the foundations of the world.  Then, we will look to Christmas Present, exploring where the choices of His creation led the God of creation.  Then, should we choose to believe in this magical and wonder-filled story of Christmas, we can then peak into our Christmas future, a future secured by what God has done for us.  There, we will see what this God of love and grace has in store for us all.  

My hope and prayer is that together we will come to see more clearly the God who has been pursuing us since before we were born; the God who came down to rescue us and return us unto Himself, and the God who has secured a future with us, where we will live at home.  The knowledge of this incredible story has the power to make us into new creations who share this Christmas story with all God sends us to meet.

May the telling and reimagining of this story, the Christmas story, bring much needed light into every corner of our world today. I look forward to the journey, and to spending Christmas…together!