Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

God sending His son Jesus to us was THE greatest gift ever. In Jesus we find grace, mercy, forgiveness and adoption into our forever family in Heaven.

I find it very interesting that Jesus' earthly life began and ends with adoption. His adoption of us is for eternity there is no beginning and there is no end. While Jesus was on earth he had an adoptive father - Joseph, who I am sure had many days of asking "what have I signed up for?". Then as Jesus hung dying on the cross in:

John 19: 26 - 27

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Eugene Peterson wrote the following about this scripture: Even while doing the cosmic work of atonement, Jesus attended to domestic details; he gave his mother another son, and his disciple a new mother. The gospel creates new family ties, both of affection and responsibility, for us.

Dear Lord, whom do you want me to love? Whom do you want me to care for? Enlarge my sense of family beyond the walls of this house; increase my capacity for affectionate responsibility beyond this immediate family. I ask these things for your glory dear Lord, Amen.