Recapture the Wonder of the Season

     What did you like best about Christmas when you were a kid? Opening Packages? Making gifts for your family? Or was it the piney aroma of the tree? The late night candlelight church service? Grandma’s house? Apple pies cooling in the kitchen?

      Watch young kids near the tree on Christmas morning, & you’ll see what’s behind all the glitter and activity: Wonder. A child’s excitement has to do with an open heart and eager expectations.

      What if you could recapture that feeling of astonishment over Christmas, but at the spiritual level? Maybe you would have a sense of awe that God would humble himself so mightily to save you. Possibly you would shiver with excitement as you prepare to visit church with longtime friends or with your kids and hear the familiar carols. Oh to feel wonder in your heart again! However it might appear, if you’re like most people you wish you could bring back the amazement of the true meaning of this wondrous season. 

     I have good news for you. You can.

    Yes, I know, like always you’ll be busy, buying presents, baking, getting prepared, but let me suggest something that might put the Christ back in the season this year. Wont hurt to try that’s for sure.

      One way to encounter an extraordinary Christmas is by getting connected with the season of Advent, which begins 4 weeks before Christmas. That’s why Grace is using the theme this year of A Season of Wonder: Opening the Door to Christmas and Beyond. You’ll find the schedule later in the In Touch, but the idea is to not let this year get so busy that by the time Christmas comes it’s just another holiday to get through without a family fight, or the thought, “Boy I’m glad that’s over!”

      Promise yourself this year to come to Advent services and open your heart to God’s love. For when your heart is open and God’s love enters, its not only Christmas that becomes a season of wonder, but every season of the year!   

                                              Pax,               Pastor Pat  

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 A prayer for the journey:

Spirit of God,

Rekindle our passion. We seek a calling to a time of centering and recommitment as we acknowledge our mislaid, unused, wearied-from-trying gifts. We seek a time of renewal, refreshing, rekindling and spiritual rebirth.                        

Amen.