Can you feel it in the air?  It’s almost Christmas!!!  Listening to several people read the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke
this morning has just about made me cry.  It’s just almost more than I can fathom–this Savior of ours.  Bernie and I watched a show on
Discovery Channel about Jesus’ genealogy.  I thought maybe they were going to try to refute the Messiah, but they had done incredible
research into what the life of Jesus was like, and spent a lot of time drawing from the Gospel account to show that there was a sister present
at Jesus’ birth.  Probably, they say, from Joseph’s first marriage–he was a widower.  Anyway, the show also portrayed what life would
have been like for Jesus–conceived out of wedlock, talked about by the community, made fun of by other children…Our sweet Jesus–
indeed He has known every temptation that we have known, for he was 30 years old before he really began his short stint as “Jesus, the
Savior whom many wanted to kill.  Jesus, the Son of God, who came to take away the sins of the world.”  Imagine, Jesus had to be a
teenager—like many who will read this.  Imagine, Jesus–before he became “Savior” had to endure the same things that you are
experiencing and sometimes not enjoying right now.  Imagine, Jesus–knowing that God had set him apart.  Imagine, You–God has
set you apart, not as Savior, but as a Spirit-filled child of God, empowered by the Father to do great things.  And so…we celebrate the
beginning of it all–the birth of a baby who would be King.  Merry Christmas!

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