2021 Christmas Worship Guide

This Christmas, find the light, the love, the joy, the peace
By Rev. Laurie Hill, St. John United Church of God

Send a link to a friend  Share

[December 08, 2022]  Christmastime is a time for nostalgia. This is a blessing and a curse. It’s a huge blessing because we remember fondly all the good memories which surround Christmas and hope to repeat those rituals, traditions, stories, and add even more joy every year. Our expectations build. Our hope overflows.

Our memories sometimes motivate us toward kindness and compassion.

Sometimes, if we have painful holiday memories, we still are nostalgic. We long for what could have been and perhaps we strive to correct our past by making better memories in the future. If grief floods us during the holidays, we hold onto our memories even more tightly. If strife and conflict haunt us, we strive to create a joyful or at least quiet way of celebrating holidays.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph who had to travel there to be counted in a census. I remember what it was like in my ninth month of my pregnancies, one of the most difficult months. Walking or riding on a donkey or horse would’ve been horrendous. Delivering a baby in the proverbial stable would also be unbelievably frightening for a young girl.

Because I know what faith and love can do, I’m hoping there was a midwife and faithful, loving people around them. I try to fill in the “rest of the story” in my mind to make it not-so-terrifying in my mind. Each year, we bring out our nativity sets, with a loving Mary and Joseph overlooking baby Jesus, with such care and love. That is part of our nostalgic story of Christmas when we think about the “reason for the season”. The trees, gifts, decorations, parties, concerts, all are festivals of joy celebrating the birth of a baby who eventually revolutionized the world.

Amongst our blessings and curses this Christmas; the joy and the grief, the strife and the comfort, the cookies, and the broken ornaments, I invite you to remember the night our Jesus was born. It was not an easy or pretty night. It was a difficult and scary time. Yet, this scary cursed event became the light and love for the whole entire world! That way, no matter the hard, difficult, scary, or broken expectations we may feel at Christmas, the light of Christ can be reborn into our hearts again and again and again.

[to top of second column]

Find the light! Find the love! Find the joy! Find the peace!

Even if it’s a just a moment or a memory, hold on to it! For it is there that the newborn Christ lives within your own heart! Peace be with you!

Rev. Laurie Hill
St. John United Church of Christ

 

Read all the articles in our new
2022 Christmas Worship Guide

Title
CLICK ON TITLES TO GO TO PAGES
Page
Enter the Christmas season with thanksgiving 5
This Christmas, find the light, the love, the joy, the peace 7
The other side of Hope 9
Don't buy in to a counterfeit Christmas 12
Give with compassion as you see the 'image of God" in each individual 15
The eternal Gift of God 18
The Word became Flesh 19
To those who seek peace, seek Jesus 21
Holiday Worship Schedules 23

 

< Recent features

Back to top