Love for All
It is Christmas Day, the day that Love came down for you and all. We have been preparing for this day during the past four weeks of Advent and now Christmas has arrived. Today we Celebrate the Joy of the Birth of a little baby, a baby full of LOVE for ALL. A Love that we are called to show to each other.
But, It seems that Love for each other has been lost in love for ourselves or in a misguided hateful belief or direction.
I began thinking about this devotional some weeks ago. As it takes awhile for me to hear for the Holy Spirit to guide me. During the past few days I have been hearing a lyric “Love Came Down”. So this morning I searched for the hymn and found “Love Came Down at Christmas” by Christina G. Rossetti ca.1885. (Public Domain)
“Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, Love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.”
This hymn is based on; John 4:7-11, 13:35. (CEB):
“Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other.
John 13:35 (CEB): This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.”
On the day I was writing this message, the people of Johnson Memorial UMC and others came together in the evening to show our Love and support of the Jewish Community. We joined B’ani Sholom Synagogue for their evening service to honor the lives of those so tragically lost, at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg, PA, the week before.
On this Christmas Day let us go fourth into the world to show LOVE for ALL. For Christ was sent into the world not to judge but to save the world though his LOVE for ALL and not just for some. May we be the Disciples Christ has called us to be to the world through LOVE.
Have a very blessed Christmas Day.
Love to ALL,
Fred Herr
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