{"id":1164,"date":"2024-12-15T14:34:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T19:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2024-12-14T10:09:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T15:09:20","slug":"this-is-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/?p=1164","title":{"rendered":"This is Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To women with aching hearts, praying through the night,
And fathers watching long for prodigals,
The prophet speaks Comfort<\/em>:
“Comfort My people….make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.” <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To every home that has an extra room, waiting to be filled,
And every heart that needs a place to belong,
The angels sing Peace<\/em>:
“He makes beautiful things out of the dust.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the sheep who have lost their way and perhaps their hope as well–
To all of us who need a fresh start,
The messenger says Jesus<\/em>:
“He will save His people from their sins.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas is foremost the story of God fulfilling His promises to make all things new, announcing “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) <\/em>Envy the prophet Isaiah, given the Good News to proclaim that the time has finally come: “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed….Here is your God!” (Isaiah 40:2,9)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Christmas God answers the waiting centuries with His “Yes!” Whispered in the dark stable, blazing overhead in the constellations, weaving music in the wind over the rocky hills of Judea, passed from mouth to mouth on dusty roads by faceless nameless travelers: “For unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Christmas the money we spend and the lights we drape could make us forget for a while that we are only dust underneath, and all the gaiety and greetings might cover up the howl of the ages: “Meaningless, all is meaningless.”<\/em>\u00a0(Ecclesiastes 12:8) But if we dig deep beneath all the distractions and see God’s “yes” of Mercy and Grace at the heart of the season, we will find a more real and sober Christmas, something solid and true and everlastingly beautiful. This is Christmas in its essence: that Someone sees us, Someone hears us, and Someone came to find us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

~~~~~~~<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All around<\/em>
Hope is springing up from this old ground<\/em>
Out of chaos life is being found in You<\/em>
You make beautiful things<\/em>…
You make beautiful things out of the dust<\/em>.
You make beautiful things<\/em>…
You make beautiful things out of us<\/em><\/p>Gungor, You Make Beautiful Things<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

~~~~~~~<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare\u00a0the way for the\u00a0Lord;\u00a0make straight in the desert\u00a0a highway for our God.\u00a0Every valley shall be raised up,\u00a0every mountain and hill made low;\u00a0the rough ground shall become level,\u00a0the rugged places a plain.\u00a0And the glory of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0will be revealed,\u00a0and all people will see it together.\u00a0For the mouth of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0has spoken.’<\/em><\/p>Isaiah 40:3-5<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To women with aching hearts, praying through the night,And fathers watching long for prodigals,The prophet speaks Comfort:“Comfort My people….make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.”  To every home that has an extra room, waiting to be filled,And … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-roots"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvNH-iM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4060,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions\/4060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/laurel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}