Hello, friends.

All day long, I’ve been wanting to take a few minutes to wish you a Merry Christmas.  Wherever you are, however your day is going and whenever you read this, I hope you’re filled with an illogical joy over the whole mystery of Christmas.  I hope it’s a joy that goes beyond gifts, beyond family, beyond traditions, beyond holiday meals.  I pray it’s an unshakeable joy centered on the Child of Christmas.

Some of us are on cloud nine right now.  Others are struggling.  Maybe you got everything you wanted for Christmas or maybe there just wasn’t any money for gifts  this year.  Maybe you’re surrounded with family and friends or maybe loneliness is pressing in on you.  Maybe the smile on your face is real or maybe it’s masking a sea of turmoil.  I really don’t know.  But there is One who does.  He knows you.  He loves you.  He’s very much for you.  And He is near.

His name is Jesus.  And He is the center of everything.  Yesterday.  Today.  Always.

He is as accessible today as He was that first Christmas.  Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.  That’s the epicenter of joy for each of us.  Nothing else really matters.  The God of the Universe humbled Himself to walk among us as a man.  He was born to die.  His life, His cross and His empty tomb shout hope and life to you and to me today.  As long as King Jesus reigns, there is much to celebrate.  Today of all days, we should sing, we should dance, joy should be real and everything should seem possible.

Our King has come.  Joy to the world.

Merry Christmas,

John