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Well, the day has come and gone.  The church Christmas program went very well.  The meal was superb, the decorations were inviting and the technical details flowed without a hitch!  A total of 122 people came and enjoyed the day!

Yesterday was a bit cold.  This is winter with a bite!

Today I’m preparing to head to our church Christmas program.  At this point the temperature is a chilly -32 with the expected high -31 (wind chill of -44).  I’m expecting there will be more than a few who decide an extended drive in this cold weather would not be advisable. 

Already we have one couple who live in a remote area who have made that decision.  We’ll do a little revising to the program as needed.  As always, blessed are those who are flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape!!

A friend of mine, Wayne Gibson, and I decided a while ago to do an evening (OK, more like an hour’s worth) of Christmas music.  We enlisted my wife’s assistance and have been practicing this last little while.

Why?  Well, the message of Christmas is always relevant.  But there were other more subtle reasons.  We know that people are busy doing things for Christmas. 

This past week was “school presentation” week.  I’ve given up on trying to attend all, or sometimes any, of these great presentations.  Pack this time full with regular responsibilities and you are being transported or transporting people from one place to another like a river constantly flowing — and wishing the stream would freeze over so you could slow down for a minute.

And if you think this activiteness (a new word I just minted!) is just for those with kids.  Not so!  Two weeks ago seemed to be our “seniors supper” week.  Everyone seemed to have a dinner, or luncheon, or special presentation.  Every night of the week (a little exaggeration there, but not much).

And then December 21st hits.  The first day of winter.  The first day that seems to be free of the adrenalin that can distract us from the reason for the season.  For some there is still the preparation for Christmas day — but there is a one or two day window before you have to gear up for everyone who is coming.

That window (from what I can see) happens to fall on December 22nd this year.

That’s the day you just need to sit back in an informal setting, and hear Christmas music again for the very first time.

7:00 pm on Monday, December 22nd — the venue is the Kindersley Alliance Church on 74 West Road in Kindersley — the cost is negligible (which means — no cost!). 

Sing a few timeless carols — listen to some new Christmas music.  Wayne has a new song he wrote just this past week, I’ve got a song I wrote in the past year, and we have permission to use another song featured on the CBC radio Christmas music contest last year.  Add to that a bit more music, friends and family, and perhaps this window is the one you need to be peering through this year!!

Our advertising includes one poster at our local church!  This is a word of mouth thing — so if you know of someone who would enjoy this, let them know.  Feel free to use Facebook, or email, or phone, or . . .  Maybe even consider coming yourself.  Let me know if you are coming — I’ll make sure I have a chair set out just for you.

In the last few days I’ve picked up, totally unplanned and inadvertently, two books.  One at Coles, thinking it was on sale.  Another left behind and crying out to be examined.

The first book is a prayer book, the second an examination of a sacred text.  The Jewish prayer book’s introduction on prayer is amazing.  I’ve read many books on prayer from a Christian perspective.   This book is succinct and a great approach to prayer.  The second explains how the Koran is to be treated in respect — literally watching carefully how the paper and ink are transported, held and even placed.

I’m reminded that the written sacred text is important.  In the past few years we have been dwelt on the statement “in the beginning was the Word” as referring to the living Word of God, found alive in the life of a Christian.  We have underplayed the truth of the written Word of God — because our society is so bound to experience, a current happening and the sensual life.  Words on paper seem so sterile! 

Every once in a while we need to return to the awe that comes from the scrawlings on paper and parchment.  These are the words of God.

As I read these books, though, I was reminded that one thing remains.  For all the sacredness of texts which intersect Jews and Muslims, what we Christians call the Old Testament, there is yet one thing missing.  They miss the Messiah — in flesh and blood — who affirms the written texts but is himself the living text.

So, if Christmas does one thing — for all the fuzzy feelings and family sensibilities  our culture and media stress — Christmas is distinctive.  Here is the Messiah come in flesh and blood.  For the Jews this point allows for either a recognition that anticipation of the Messiah has been fulfilled, or a belief that anticipation still awaits.  For the Muslim, this is a point of recognition that either the Messiah was enough, or that, centuries later, there was a needed fulfilment of “another” to come and reveal God more fully. 

For the Christian, Jesus is both the anticipation and the fulfilment!