Redemption

Ten days from today, we will be celebrating Christmas. It's coming like a steamroller paving a new street, not stopping, rolling toward us, ready or not! Do we laugh, do we panic, or do we look calmly at what a Gift has been given and can be renewed in our hearts this year and every year? Indeed, we who were lost, abandoned to our own whims and sins, have been redeemed. Let us not forget that amidst the glitter of the new LED lights that are everywhere, or in the dilemmas over what to buy Aunt Susie.... The prophet Isaiah speaks to us today using the image of marriage to describe what redemption means: Fear not, you shall not be put to shame;/ you need not blush, for you shall not be disgraced./ The shame of your youth you shall forget,/ the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember./ For he who has become your husband is your Maker; / his name is the Lord of hosts;/ Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,/ called God of all the earth./ The lord calls you back,/ like a wife foresaken and grieved in spirit,/ A wife married in youth and then cast off./ says your God./ for a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back./ In an outburst of wrath, for a moment/ I hid my face from you;/ but with enduring love I take pity on you,/ says the Lord your redeemer." (Is 54: 4-8). The shepherds, the manger, the angels singing Glory to God in the Highest, all that comes to mind about Christmas Eve...is really about God's love, forgiving a sinful, unfaithful people, taking us back, redeeming us. May we not lose sight of this.
Bro. Rene