There’s only a week to go until Christmas. Does that thought stress you out? Did I just make you wonder if you should skip church this week to get things done before Christmas? Don’t do it!!!! If you are chained to the Christmas treadmill filled with stress, pressure and never ending to-do lists, then worship is exactly the place you need to be this Sunday. Christmas, for you, has become a race to the finish, rather than the reflection on and savoring of a Savior it is meant to be. It’s not too late to make this Christmas different. It’s time to stop and turn your focus on a gift you’ve been given and the re-gifting of that gift to others. I’m referring to the love of Christ.
Jesus came for love. That’s the message the Apostle John wants you to consider,embrace and reflect, even in the most compressed and stress filled periods of life. The love of Christ in you is not only essential to the Christian faith but it is the grounds of your assurance in the Christian faith. John tells us that Jesus came to demonstrate the depth of God’s love to us and to demonstrate how we might share love with others. Love was made known at Christmas. That fruitroll, stocking stuffer or clean house you’re stressing about probably won’t change the world, but the love of Christ is certain to. It just may change your heart this Christmas.