I love the season of Advent.  I also love Christmas cards of this season. Especially the traditional kind.   Like a snow-covered landscape, with a cozy cottage hidden in the woods. In the window you see the decorations. The smoke rising from the chimney tells you there’s a fire inside. You can almost feel the warmth; you can almost smell the gingerbread and sweet potato pie.  It is a picture of peace and tranquility.  When I see pictures such as these, I think, "What a beautiful world to live in."

But unfortunately, that’s not the world where many people find themselves today. Instead of peace and tranquility, they’re surrounded by heartache and pain, even darkness and despair. For many, the pictures on Christmas cards seem forever out of reach.    While we hope for a world that we cannot create, we continue to live in a world we cannot escape.  This is why we need Jesus.

He came to change that which we cannot change for ourselves. He came to turn something ugly into something beautiful. He came to……comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. (Isaiah 61:2-3)

Oh, how I love to read those words.    Beloved, maybe today you see only ashes — but there is a crown of beauty waiting for you. The oil of gladness. A garment of praise.     The most awe-inspiring scene you can imagine, Jesus came to make real. Not just for a moment, captured in time, but for all eternity.  

"“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture."      Malachi 4:2

Serving until the King comes back, 

pastor