Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o’er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation’s story
Now proclaim Messiah’s birth.

In a way, this verse from the classic Christmas hymn captures the themes that I’m striving to examine in this blog. Like the angels, we can also sing (and study) creation’s story. It is a story of beauty, wonder, and excitement. The origins of life, its development into the forms we see today, and the emergence of humanity serve to evidence God’s awesome power.

But the story doesn’t stop there. Not only do the angels sing creation’s story, they proclaim the Messiah’s birth! We live our lives in the middle of multiple dimensions: physical, emotional, spiritual. No single one will tell us everything we need to know about being human.

This Christmas day, think about what it means that God created the universe ex nihilo, that life formed and we evolved within that universe, and that God himself entered it in order to save us from our fallen ways. Think about these things, along with the angels, and ponder the wonder of this season.

Merry Christmas!

My reflection the next year was short, but focused on a variation of the same theme.  We are not meant to live for ourselves, and thus Christ died for us that we might follow Him.

This year my Christmas thoughts come a bit early, as I prepare to leave for a European tour over the holidays. While I’m very excited about the trip (Berlin, Prague, Munich, Basel, Paris), it does mean Christmas away from the family and the (home) church.  The reason this is dissapointing is not that I like to get gifts or feel obligated to attend service on Christmas Eve, but that times of rememberance like Christmas are meant to be celebrated in community, because we are not meant to live for ourselves.

Since leaving college, the need for community has become much more apparent to me.  College is, as they always tell you and you never believe, a contrived environment in which everything is provided for you if you just step out of the door of your dorm and take it.  After college, in a new city, you realize that if you want community you have to go out and find it.  We are not meant to live for ourselves, but we still have to purposefully live around and for others if we want to be in community.

Sometimes, often, usually this can be hard to do.  It’s hard to get up in a new city and go to Church on Sunday.  It’s hard to get out in the evenings and visit people.  But when we do so, and place ourselves in the community around us, we are living as humans are meant to live: around others.

During the past months, I have been blessed to live with my loving parents again, to work with wonderful people, to visit many churches (and hopefully settle into one of them), and to get to know some good friends better.  Community is a wonderful thing, and I am very thankful for it.

This season, live in community. Merry Christmas!

King of heaven now the Friend of sinners,
Humble servant in the Father’s hands,
Filled with power and the Holy Spirit,
Filled with mercy for the broken man.
Yes, He walked my road and He felt my pain,
Joys and sorrows that I know so well;
Yet His righteous steps give me hope again -
I will follow my Immanuel!

The words speak for themselves. What a marvelous picture of our Christian faith.

Merry Christmas!