A few months ago Plough Publishing restarted emailing a daily thought they call “Daily Dig.” As you might expect Advent and Christmas has been the theme for the last several weeks. Below is a recent posting that captured my attention by how it starts and had more than my attention by the ending. I trust you will find it worth reading and hearing today.
“Two thousand years ago God gave his Son to the world. But Mary was afraid, Joseph worried, and Herod became so incensed he was determined to destroy the child. The Apostle Paul writes that the Greeks thought God’s gift was foolishness, and the Jews an obstacle to their liberation. And in John’s Gospel we read that the light shone in the darkness, but the darkness had not understood it; God’s Word had come to his own but he was not welcomed.
“And yet some did receive him. Those who believed became children of God. They saw first-hand God’s glory, full of grace and truth, and henceforth they received one blessing after another: Freedom from sin, peace on earth, goodwill toward all people.
“Christmas is not about getting what we want or even giving what we think others want. Christmas is about letting God enter our world so that he can transform and free it. His gift was small, it came in a feeding trough, unexpectedly – barely recognizable. That’s how God’s gift is. His gifts may assault our desires, confound our feelings, insult our thinking, threaten our sense of control, but they always come to us from his very heart. For God is love; he always wants to give. Not as we want him to give, not as the world gives, but in a way that transcends the imagination and brings true healing and redemption to our world.”
(from “The Christmas Question” by Charles Moore)
http://www.plough.com/en/daily-dig/odd/december/daily-dig-for-december-13