It is time to get ready for God's love
Christmas is just around the corner. Children are counting down the hours in anticipation of the joy and wonder that this special holiday brings. For Christians, this holy day is far more important than the tangible gifts shared among friends and family. In these days of expectantly waiting, we are really supposed to be getting ready. Not just for food, fun, and fellowship, but for our role in God’s fulfillment of all of his promises.
The sacrificial gift that we celebrate on Dec. 25 is truly a gift for us all. It is our life and our love, it is our hope and our peace. In Jesus, God was able to save us from our broken selves and give us the confidence to believe in God’s promises. Through the scriptures, we are instructed on how to live that confidence, so that God’s will may be done through us.
We live in a world that is not governed by God. Instead, our world is ruled by money, power and greed. So many people are consumed by hate, and not love. There are people that thrive on creating chaos so that there is no peace. And our humanity has created a world where millions of people live every day in hopelessness. We have seen the evidence of natural disasters around the world, foretold thousands of years ago in the Bible.
And yet, the people of God who hold the promises of God in their hands are not really ready, because they don’t know the power that they hold in their hands as well as their spirits. We forget we have an assignment from God, to be the evidence of our God. We are the visible proof of an invisible creator and redeemer. As the children of God, we have been imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can share with our world.
God needs us to be the church in the world, not just our own congregation. God needs us to open our eyes to truth so that we are not swayed into sinfulness. God needs us to use our voices to stand for justice with courage and boldness.
This Christmas is more than a season, it is the celebration of God’s love for us. It is our hope for our future. It is time to get ready.
Catrina Hawkins-Bowles is the reverend at Christ’s Lutheran Church in Cambridge
This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: It is time to get ready for God's love
