So, once again, I'm sharing some beautiful words of wisdom from Pastor Matt, from my job. He sent out this email to the congregation. I thought it was beautiful and decided to share it with my friends.

Early in my ministry, I led a Christmas Pageant that featured an actual newborn infant in the starring role. When the two thirteen year old children playing Mary and Joseph walked onto the stage, holding her I heard a voice behind me say, with such joy, “Look! It's not a doll. It's a real baby!” A real baby. 

If anyone doubted that fact, a few moments later the real baby started to cry. And then holler and bellow. And everyone in the sanctuary sat up a bit more straight and leaned toward the infant, as if to soothe her.

Real babies make their presence felt. They alter lives. Their dependence, Rowan Williams writes, “is a matter of fingers clutching at ours when we'd like to be getting on with something; broken nights, hungry mouths. If God is with us as an infant – a real infant – He is not tidily gift wrapped or altogether functional. If God is with us as a child, God is certainly with us as one who calls out our tenderness and compassion, not with passivity, but with insistence, without shame or restraint." It is almost Christmas! God is coming to us! Let's all lean in, ready to care and eager to love. 

Merry Christmas, friends.