Little in life can match the beauty of Christmas Eve - the holy night of celebration. Beauty in abundance surrounds us for a few fleeting hours. Each of us treasures these moments, savoring every tradition. Somehow we love our children a little bit more this night. Our wife, how lovely she looks; our hearts feel special love for her, for him. If we had the power to stop time’s endless march - suspend it momentarily - most of us would do it Christmas Eve. For this is the night when peace pervades our hearts, as hands extend to greet friends and arms reach out to embrace family. How wonderfully good we all feel. We love and are loved. We forgive and are forgiven. We give only to receive in return.

Years ago, many years ago, there was a Christmas much unlike our own. The world didn’t stop for the first Christmas - hardly anyone even noticed. The scent of fresh baked bread and chocolate chip cookies were not the smells of the first Christmas. Straw replaced tinsel and garland. Live animals replaced Handgeschnitzed Holzfigurn and Hummels. A virgin laboring at birth, a carpenter lending an unsteady hand. Animals annoyed at intruders. Angels preparing themselves to startle shepherds. God’s wayward creation about to be invaded by the cosmic Christ. Coming into the humblest surroundings to a no-place city called Bethlehem. This was the first Christmas. How strange ... how wonderfully and beautifully strange.

The first Christmas can only be described as unusual and surprising that the God of a million heavens and a million earths should grace a manger in Bethlehem. Swaddling cloths upon the back of a King, of a God - on the back of the one, true, and only God. Where was the finery one might expect? Nowhere, for it was to the poor he came, to those who were troubled, those who were not completely self-sufficient, those who knew they were not good enough to make heaven by themselves. He came for all humankind, not only that first holy night but for every night of every year and into the present - here, right now.

The Lord Jesus Christ is present with us. He speaks to us once again the message of Christmas as he says to each of us, "I love you. I want to be close to you every day of your lives. Please be wise and invite me in. There is no one who is so perfect that he cannot welcome a fuller participation of my indwelling. There are some who have yet to welcome my powerful presence and, unfortunately, we are only occasional guests of one another and may be strangers in eternity. And to you I say, come, do not live another day without my abundant presence." Now may my Father bless and keep each one of you, and may your voices and lives continuously sing the angelic chorus, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."