Christmas Evening Devotion

Readings: Isaiah 52: 7-20
Psalm 98
Hebrews 1:1-12
John 1:1-14

A couple of Sundays after Christmas last year Reverend Shreve talked about the Christmas decorations we displayed throughout our house in celebration of our Lord and Savior's birth.

He knew we would all be taking them down and carefully wrapping and boxing them to be stored away for another year. Even our Nativity Scene depicting the birth of Christ in a tiny crib with Mary, Joseph and the Wise Men would be put away too. He reminded us Christ's birth is a powerful celebration for everyday of our lives. Not just Christmas. Why do we include it in our wrapping and boxing of our wreaths, ornaments, snowmen and Santa's for so many months out of sight and out of mind?

I thought about what he said all the way home that Sunday. I could not quit thinking about it. Soon after when I gathered up all my beautiful Christmas decorations and put them away, my small very delicate Nativity scene stayed unpacked. It is a small ivory porcelain piece trimmed in gold and very beautiful. It sets on my glass top coffee table in my living room with a huge Masonic Bible that was presented to my Daddy from my Mother on Christmas Day 1977.

Beside it sits a brilliant cut crystal cross box. This cross was a gift from a now deceased friend of over 60 years. Occasionally while passing through my living room I pick up or even just touch one of these three treasures reminding me that God is good. I pray that my Nativity scene will never see the inside of a box again.

Sometimes we tend to put our religious belief's away in a box too. What we have been taught and know in our hearts to be true about loving, caring and helping others can be forgotten. We have to open the box and set our teachings in plain view for all to see. It is not always easy. The box is tempting. We must pray and strive to keep the box empty. Believe me the presence of my Nativity scene throughout the year has helped to inspire me.

As this Christmas Day comes to a close and you finish reading all these Devotions, I would ask all of you to bow your heads with me in prayer and in your own words, pray for the hungry, needy, sick and mistreated people of this world. And pray also for the strength and guidance to do what you can do to end these miseries.

May God be with you on this Christmas Day and every day throughout the year. Amen.

Carol Lee Bolling