Wednesday evening, groups went out caroling. One group went to the nursing home and another group sang to some of the shut-ins right around the church. It was a very moving time. I am not sure what made it different from last year? Maybe the intersection of our lives now, after three Christmas seasons here? Maybe that we had a huge group of youth and children?
For me, one house in particular meant so much. We stopped at a widow's house; I had her husband's funeral this summer. As we sang "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," there was both joy and grief as we came to the verse, "Mild He lays His glory by, born that we no more may die, born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth."
One of the adults with us was a fellow who has been investigating the faith. He was greatly moved by the tears and responses of some of the people we visited. He said, "We should do this more often..."
Indeed. It could be a great way to give people an invitation to church if you went throughout a neighborhood. Sometimes in evangelism, people will say when they felt a need to come to church, they felt "invited" because someone stopped by, even if it was years before.
________________________________________
In this Christmas season, I was struck hard by something Alex Absalom wrote: "it is easy for the poor to sacrifice, but hard for them to be generous. It is easy for the rich to be generous, but hard for them to sacrifice." This rings true in my life, as one who is very rich. I can easily be self-satisfied with my off-hand generosity. And as much as I am blessed to tithe, I cannot say that I have sacrificed much.
And what seems important in all this is how much the Lord blesses and works through sacrificial giving. Mary and Joseph gave us Jesus. The Father gave us the Son. Christ gave his very life. I can never repay that, and the Gospel of Grace means that we do not even try. We take it as a gift and bathe in the love of the Giver. The question is, what is the overflow of our hearts?
No comments:
Post a Comment