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Christmas exhilarates us.  It also points us in the right direction.  As we  celebrate His coming, we strain to speak about the mystery and meaning of Jesus of Nazareth.  Emmanuel – “God is with us”.  The Word became flesh.  Son of God and Son of Mary.  Ture God, true man.

We use symbols to try to point to His meaning:

 1)  We place evergreen trees in our homes, fresh and alive to remind us that Jesus is always alive, that He lives forever.

2)  We celebrate His birth on one of the longest nights of the year – straining to say how desperately we need the light He brings.

3)  We put lights on the evergreen tree to say that He not only lives forever but He is also the light of the world.  His light not only illuminates the darkness of this night, but more crucially, the dark places and moments of our lives.

4)  We scatter gifts around the tree, brightly decorated gifts to celebrate His love for us by showing our love for others.  We remember in symbol the challenging words of Jesus: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

May we all cherish the sights and sound of Christmas.  May our celebration of Jesus’ coming into our world and our lives bring us closer to Him and to each other.  Jesus of Nazareth comes into our hearts and homes this Christmas with life that can never be crushed by any form of death.