Christmas 12 days

Into our world, where we usually stay busy and frequently feel tired, God comes. God comes to us where we are, somewhere between darkness and light. God comes to us as we are, anxious and worried, hopeful and blessed. God comes to us as wonderful and surprising as angels singing to shepherds on a hill. God comes to us now as a small baby in a manger.

Let us marvel at the Holy Child, worship on bended knee, and sing with the angels. Let us be blessed by the gaze of the Christ child. God looks at us with love and great joy that spreads to all people.

- Larry James Peacock
Openings: A Daybook of Saints, Psalms, and Prayer

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES

Parkland UMC Dec. 24th 7:30 pm

Cooperative Parish also has the following opportunities:

Family Oriented Christmas Eve Service at The Bridge UMC 5:20 pm

Bethany: 10 Coffee/Dessert Hour

11 pm Candle Light Service w/Communion

Christmas Thoughts

Christmas tries to point to an inner light,

a tree of lights inside the house of our being,

and invites people to come close

and ponder its beauty.

We notice this light because

it is contrasted with an outer darkness.

And it defies the darkness,

refusing to allow the outer world

to dictate the terms of existence.

- - - John Shea, in Starlight

Advent Thoughts

...it is precisely this experience of simultaneous leave-taking and homecoming that lies at the heart of Advent. As we travel toward Christmas, these weeks draw us into the stories of those who let God lead them beyond the lives they had known... Even as they allowed God to stretch them beyond the landscape they had known, each of these folks moved further into God's longing for their lives. As they welcomed Jesus--this wild and wondrous Word made flesh--they found their own welcome that took them deeper into the heart of God. This leaving-and-homecoming brings a tension that is not always easy to hold. Yet this is the price--and the gift--of incarnation: that as we open ourselves to the Christ who still comes among us, as we offer our own daring yes to him, as we turn our faces starward, as we leave our familiar landscape in this season of waiting and anticipation, we will find ourselves walking toward the One who has been waiting for us all along. -Jan Richardson www.janrichardson.com