Is this weather confusing you as much as it is me?

            I’ve got to get out and rake the leaves, but I’m inside writing Christmas cards instead.  The snowstorm awakened something in me, I guess.

            What is it?  A spirit of anticipation?  Of hope?  Of joy?

            In my defense, the card for my sponsor child does need to mail early, in order to be translated and delivered to Ethiopia before Christmas.  Picking the right card for her wasn’t easy.

            I love those cards with the winter scenes of cottage-type houses covered in snow, the soft glow of light shining out of all the little windows.  Do you know which ones I mean?  In some of them you can see Christmas trees in the windows, or logs burning toasty warmth in a fireplace.

            But that’s not the right kind of card to send.  I’m afraid it would leave my sponsor child  feeling like she is on the outside of something wonderful looking in.

            Have you ever felt that way, like you are on the outside of something, looking in?  Perhaps you have been on the outside of a relationship, wishing someone would let you into their life.  Are you outside of employment right now, wishing you could find a job?  Maybe poor health has kept you out of the mainstream of life.

            Or maybe you are on the outside of The Church, looking in.

            That’s where I was, twenty plus years ago.  Church, I thought, was a magical, wonderful place where worthy people belonged.  When I finally mustered up the courage to step inside a sanctuary, in a church near my college campus, it was only because there was no one else inside at the moment.  I remember creeping up to the front pew and just sitting there in silence, feeling very much like an intruder but wanting desperately to know what it felt like to be there – inside.  At some point I started actually attending services, but always sat at the back and snuck out before the service ended because I was so afraid to meet the minister.  He might ask me what I was doing there!

            Now that I am very much inside of Somerset Hills Lutheran Church, I can look back and laugh at myself.  I know now that our Lord Jesus Christ was born to usher outsiders like me in!  In fact, The Church is made up entirely of outsiders.  Adopted children, all of us, we are forgiven, saved and brought into The Kingdom – into God’s family – by His grace alone.  Church is a wonderful place, that’s for sure, but it’s not about being worthy.

            It’s about believing that Jesus was born of a virgin, suffered and died on The Cross, and rose again to life for you, because He loves you!

            Because He wants you in here with us.  In here, with Him.