Over 2000 years ago, God came to earth as the newest member of a homeless refugee family. Since that time, Christmas has been a reminder that God’s invitation of love, hope, and forgiveness is available to all mankind.

Humanity is fallen and we are unable to save ourselves. At the right time, God chose to come to earth in a frail human body to be all we couldn’t be, and to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. Jesus came to offer rescue and redemption to a world in desperate need. He came to offer redemption to the humble parents who would raise him. He came to offer redemption to the inn keeper who had no lodgings available for his birth. He came to offer redemption to Herod whose paranoia would soon lead him to murder a village full of innocent children. He came to offer redemption to Caesar Augustus, the most powerful man in the world at that time, a man who thought himself to be a type of god. He came to offer redemption to the prostitute who sells her body to pay the rent. He came to offer redemption to her bosses who profit from her nightly self-destruction. He came to offer redemption to those in power in the White House and to those who lack power in the poorest black projects. He came to offer redemption to those who will be killed by bullets from a gun, and to those who pull the trigger. He came to offer redemption to you and to me.

While not all will accept God’s offer of forgiveness and peace, those of us who do have a high calling. Like Christ at Christmas, we are to care for the lowly and undeserving.  Our message to a world in need echoes the beloved hymn by Isaac Watts:

No more let sins and sorrows grow

Nor thorns infest the ground

He comes to make his blessings flow

Far as the curse is found…

This is the messy and glorious truth of Christmas, that God’s offer of redemption knows no bounds.  May this Christmas find you filled with love, joy, hope, and the peace that only Jesus Christ can give.