Every year our Christmas stories change.
Some years the story is good. We are joined by family. We get all the gifts on our list.
Maybe we’re even lucky enough to see snow.
Some years the story is not so good. Like this past Christmas Eve that I spent in the emergency room, reeling from a high fever and vomiting. It kept me from my first Christmas Eve service at Hope and broke my heart.
But the good news is that the true story of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, never changes.
Two days ago, at the Christmas Eve service, I was supposed to do the first reading. I was excited at the chance and my biggest concern was whether or not I could make it through the following lines from Isaiah without crying: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Throughout our lives, there will be good Christmases and ones filled with regret. Those memories will always be there, but they will always joined by the only Christmas story that matters.
That God so loved the world that he gave his only son …
