Praying To Welcome Christ Again This Christas Eve

Christmas Eve

Well we've arrived at Christmas Eve 2020.  I pray you are safe and healthy and in the middle of everything that is different this year, that you experience the great kindness of God shining through to you and bringing hope and peace.

Many people go to church around the world tonight in regular times. They may not go at any other time than Christmas and Easter but they pack churches from wall to wall on nights like this.  And those are lovely services with candles and wonderful singing and the familiar story Jesus being born.

Lots of church services are streamed even during years when we are not living in lockdown.  For some, church attendance is just tradition but for many there is at least a few moments of reaching out to encounter God. 

Historically, encounters with our awesome God or His angels brought fear.  On the night Jesus was born the angels sent by God to announce His birth had to reassure the shepherds, "Don't be afraid!"  Once the shepherds realized that the angels wanted to communicate with them, they were willing to hear what they had to say and then to seek the Christ child of whom they spoke.

God, our Heavenly Father,  is a personal God who wants to share His plans with us.  When we put our faith in Him, His perfect love will cast out all fear.  We need never fear an unknown future for Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. 

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger....

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”  So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  Luke 2:8-12, 15-16

God’s desire is that we receive His gift of love which casts out all fear.  God seeks people who are attentive to who He is, what He does, and why He does it.  God wants us to experience His unfailing love for us.  Will we recognize Him?  Will we respond to His love?  Will we share the interests of His heart and allow Him to share in the interests of ours? 

This Christmas, yes, even this Christmas in 2020 during the pandemic, let's encounter the love of God through Jesus.  Let's come close and experience the wonder of His presence with us.

Loving God, We're touched that You are even interested in having a loving relationship with us.  You are an awesome God, the creator of the heavens and the earth.  From things as small as microscopic cells and cell components to the wideness of the universe that I read has scientists a bit confused because it's growing faster than they expected - You are the God who created it all and You are the God who is personally interested in us. 

Thank You for sending Jesus into the world so that our relationship with You might be restored.  Thank you for finding ways to raise our hopes and calm our fears.  On this holy night, we receive Your gift of love, unfailing love that will carry us through.  

We turn from the darkness of arrogant self-will and we humbly turn to You, the light of the world.  Come and be born in us and fill us with Your life.  Take us forward in Your power to do all that You have in mind.  Your plans and purposes are awesome and full of blessing.  We want to stand right in the middle of them so we both experience fullness of life and are able to direct blessing to others. 

As the shepherds responded to the angels and actually went to Bethlehem to see this thing that the angels said had happened, so we take a few moments of look up to You and to experience the wonder of Your presence with us.  We know that encounters with You become experiences that feed great joy into us and so we look for something beyond sentimentality and invite You to reveal Yourself to us.

Help us to recognize Your presence, wholeheartedly give ourselves to You and let Your presence in our lives change all that we are and so as surely as that new baby Jesus changed everything Mary and Joseph did after he was born. 

O come let us adore Him.  O come let us adore Him.  O come let us adore Him Christ the Lord. 

Merry Christmas, friends