Pineridge Blog

I hope you are really busy right now. So busy in fact that you cannot possibly get everything done. If you don’t have enough to do, rather than buying gifts for everyone on your list, I encourage you to make something unique for each person. If you really love them you will make something that expresses their individual character and your deep appreciation for them, right? While you are doing that I hope that you will work extra hours to provide solid evidence of your value to the world. And I hope you will be stressed by the extra work and the extra burden of making Christmas just right for those you love. In fact, I hope you are so stressed that you will not be able to even let down for a quiet moment to pray or even think straight. And then Christmas will come, as it always does. And Jesus will come, as he always does. And perhaps you will realize for the very first time, that Jesus was born into an over worked, over wrought, over stressed world. Jesus was born to first time parents who were stressed beyond imagining, because Mary’s water broke in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, IN A BARN! And the angels came to bring the announcement of Jesus’ birth to a handful of people who could only find minimum wage jobs on the night shift that no one else wanted. People of no value. Jesus came and Jesus comes not because of who we are, but because of who God is.

 “In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

Jim