Thankful Thursday - Christmas Eve

If the story I've read in the gospels of Matthew and Luke is true,

if God came into the world as a newborn baby boy,
through the body of a teenaged girl,
into a small nation dominated by a larger nation,

if Love was born in a stable in Bethlehem two thousand years ago,
Love that touched lepers,
Love that fed the hungry,
Love that raised the dead,
Love that healed the broken, the wounded, the bent over, and the bleeding,
Love that opened the mouths of the mute and the ears of the deaf,
Love that delivered the oppressed,
Love that turned over the tables of the money-obsessed,
Love that challenged the powerful to become people of compassion,
Love that stood between the accused and her accusers,
Love that calmed storms,
Love that sat with and talked with outcasts,
Love that welcomed women and children,
Love that washed the feet of the one who would betray him and the one who would deny him and all the ones who would abandon him,
Love that died and Love that rose again,
Love that prays for me and for you and for all people,

If that eternal Love,
that tender Love,
that fierce Love,
that truth-telling Love,
that unprecedented Love,
that prodigal Love,
that irresistible Love,
that incomprehensible Love,
that amazing Love,
that newborn Love,
if that is the Love we are preparing to celebrate tonight and tomorrow,
then today is THE most thankful of Thursdays.
Thanks be to God.

Merry Christmas!

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While preparing to teach Sunday School last week, I rediscovered this song.
And discovered this video to go along with the song.
The scenes from the video were taken from the movie, "The Nativity Story."

A Baby Will Come

The kings of this world

Have torn it apart

But we can take heart

A baby will come

To the hungry and meek

To those who grieve

To the broken, in need

A baby will come

We have known pain

We’ve felt death’s sting

God, help us believe

This baby will come

The angel appeared

Said do not fear

For peace is here

A baby will come

The advent of life

Let hope arise

We’ve our Savior and Christ

The Baby has come

We’ve waited so long

God, for Your mighty arm

May our doubts ever calm

For the Baby has come

The proud will be low

The humble will know

They’re valued and loved

For the Baby has come

Cause the kings of this world

Won’t have the last word

That, God, is Yours

For the Baby has come