Hope for the New Year

I received a great letter from the Ryan McReynolds family that I would like to share.

"Our family has been reading through the Christmas story this year from the gospel of Luke. Interspersed with these times pondering the story of the birth of Jesus, I have read the same news headlines that you have: thousands laid-off, businesses closing, economic downturn, financial crisis, financial scandal, political scandal. All of us have likely been personally affected by these events.

How can we celebrate Christmas with all of this going on? Reading over the story again I've been reminded that as bad as things are, Jesus was born into a situation that was much worse. The Roman world was a cesspool of disease, corruption and exploitation. The Christmas story is not some airy fable of perfect people in a perfect world. It is a real story of real people in the real world. The same world we still live in. God shows up right in the middle of it as a vulnerable infant.

The Christmas story reminds me that God enters into our hard times. He is truly Immanuel: God with us. He is still with us. These times are not a surprise to him and by his Spirit we can be kind and unselfish, even in hard times.

That Spirit of Christmas has changed the world since Jesus first drew a breath. The story of Jesus has circled the globe and will again until people of every tribe, tongue and nation are numbered among those who call him savior and lord. Also the world has become more just and merciful as the grace and truth of the gospel has emerged from Jesus' day to our own. We now tell the story, the story of God showing up in hard times, the story that changes everything, the story that we are in."

Peace and hope to all in 2009