December 25, 2017

Luke 2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

This is Luke’s account of the first Christmas, the only place in the Bible that gives us any details surrounding the event. We hear a lot of conjecture at this time of year concerning what that first Christmas must have been like, but this year I’m acutely aware of how many people in my life are experiencing their first Christmas- their first Christmas with their new baby; their first Christmas without their loved one; their first Christmas in their new abode; Etc. Most of us have personal traditions to which we cling to provide continuity and connection with what was but it some way each Christmas is a first Christmas. In the first Christmas described by Luke, Jesus enters the world amid the chaos of change on the large scale of world politics and the intimate personal scale of Mary and Joseph. In whatever way this is a first Christmas for you, I pray that Jesus will be born anew in faith and joy, comfort and love.