Christ is born!

Merry Christmas!  We are writing from the mountains of North Carolina, where we're visiting with Sara's family for a few days.  We hope that you are with people you love, and that the spirit of Christmas continues to be alive in you.

Christ is born, and that is profoundly good news for the world!  It's the reminder that God loved the world God created so much, that God chose to come among us, to become one with us... not with power and might but in the most vulnerable, humble way possible:  as a tiny baby, born to a poor, young woman in an obscure village in a remote corner of the world.  Jesus was born not amidst the luxury of a palace but surrounded by animals (and all the smells that accompany them) in a stable;  not among the wealthy or respected but among the working poor.  Jesus' birth reminds us that God knows everything there is to know about what it means to be human.  More importantly, Jesus' life serves as an example of how to live in and through the love of God.

Maybe your gifts are unwrapped under the tree, or packed in a box, or waiting to be returned for a different size, but the gift of a newborn Christ continues.  God's light still shines in the darkness.  Hope springs eternal!  Christmas changes everything.

So we hope you'll continue to claim the promise of Christ's birth here in these days after Christmas, and that the blessings of a newborn Savior will carry you forward into the new year that awaits us, just around the corner.

Light and love,
Allen & Sara