Pastor's Pen                            
                                 by Pastor Jimmy Sharp  

                                                                                                    
  December 2003

We are reminded by various means of the holiday season. We are told of it's festive nature and how we too should be festive. We should be happy and joyous and giving and generous and all that sort of stuff. We should sing the songs and play the games and drink hot chocolate, we are having a good time, aren't we?
 
I am not as young of a man as I use to be and as I have gotten older I have noticed that Christmas and the associated 'Season' that goes with it is quite often not what the commercials on television portray. It is common during this wonderful season for many people not to be festive or joyous. In fact some are very sad. Some people are depressed. Some people weep more than they laugh. These are people that work hard and love much. These people share many good things from the community that surrounds them. They are good at there jobs. They are good parents. They are good friends. They are loyal citizens. They are fine upstanding people and at this time of year they are made aware of  of an element that is missing. In the midst of all the holiday festivities and the coming and going, the singing and the shopping they become aware that something is missing. There is something about this holiday event that is missing and some struggle to fill it with songs, gifts, parties and even people, but even then it is still missing. Wouldn't it be a holiday worth celebrating if we discovered what was missing?
 
I don't have all the answers, but I do have some suggestions. Maybe, one of the missing pieces is a relationship. I am convinced that we are created in the image of God, the Bible tells me so. Being created in the image of God is not a physical thing it is a spiritual thing, the Bible tells me so. Relationships that matter are more that physical relationships. Relationships that matter are spiritual in nature and therefore are more valuable than material things, cars, clothes, rings, and things like that, the Bible tells me so. Gifts under a Christmas tree do have some value but they won't meet the spiritual need in our lives. Spiritual longings are very real longings in our lives and those longings are not satisfied by gifts from a department store. Spiritual longings are met in contact with other spiritual persons created in the image of God. By contact I am not suggesting by phone or geographic location. I am suggesting contact with the creator of my spirit, God. I am suggesting that 'peace on earth' comes through 'peace within' and 'peace within' only comes in a relationship with the the creator of my spirit.
 
So what about Christmas? Christmas is the season to celebrate contact. By this, I mean, God, the Almighty Spirit, became one with the human spirit that was created by God in God's image. This is a lofty and high thought, that the creator God would become the very object of God's own creation. WOW!  You mean a baby born in Bethlehem is how God chose to accomplish this cosmic feat? That's what the Bible tells me. When I think of Christmas I think of how much God loves me and that being in relationship with me is God's first priority. I am the apple of God's eye, the Bible tells me so. And so this, and more, is Christmas. 
 
May you discover this Christmas more than presents under your tree. May you discover what's missing in your life.

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