I was so anxious to share how much the service meant to me I forgot to mention what the theme was for that December 7th service. Children were a big part of our focus, and not just what they mean to us as precious gifts compacted into little packages but how deep an impact they will have on the world around them.We realize that soon and very soon these babes of ours will run right out into that big old world…without us to protect them and the world can be a vicious and cruel place evident by the many broken hearts & lives.

That was the life discovery Mary made about the babe born in that smelly cold stable, from the beginning she knew he was special, but that his entrance into this despairing existence would actually blow the doors off the gates of hell and break the chain of sins bondage through death by crucifixion was something she probably never saw coming…and maybe something she would not have allowed.
Those of us with small ones understand where this is going, the discovery is always the same: there are things, consequences, life-altering decision-making situations that belong to each individual, and the hardest thing to do as a parent is to step aside and let things happen. So we do what Mary and Joseph did, we take our precious gifts to God and present them to Him there in His sanctuary, and allow the never-changing God of grace and mercy to anoint their gentle yet resilient lives with His love.
We could probably never comprehend the agony that Mary underwent on the dreadful day of Christ’s execution, no words or pictures could ever describe it either. But those who are drawn to examine that event and are overcome by the magnitude of the meaning of love will without a doubt experience the undulation of exuberant elation when they discover that that is not the end of the story.

I have been led to discover that we cannot see the full beauty of Christ’s sacrifice until we stand and look at the wretched ugliness of his death by crucifixion, and to confess that it was the shouting of our sins that screamed “Crucify Him!”
It was the gift of God’s love to send His Son, it was the gift of Christ’s death to redeem and reconcile us back to God, and it’s the gift of love gone full circle when we come and lay our life and our children’s lives at the foot of Jesus this Christmas.