It was a busy Christmas here. Like many, we have a number of elderly folks. So we elected to have a Christmas Day service. That meant three services in less than 40 hours. I thought about Mary and Joseph in the temple on Sunday as I read that lesson and preached. I wonder if they got to the front of a line and found a weary priest who had purified 22 similar women who had given birth to a first born already that day. Was he just going through the motions? The temptation to perfunctory service is real. I was tired.
Next year is the preacher’s Christmas – Christmas Eve falls on Saturday and we get Christmas day on Sunday, no extra service.
But it was a glorious few days. It was good to be on the downward side of COVID here. Yes, the omicron variant continues to trouble us, but it felt like we were much closer to normal this Christmas than last Christmas. I am grateful for that. But best of all, we had the privilege of worshiping and adoring the incarnate Christ. He has come into this world, taken up our humanity, and borne our sins. He has given us his righteousness, and we are whole once more. It was of course a good Christmas.
