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Blessings for a season of love and peace for you and yours.
The season of Christmas is a season of peace and love being shared and remembered
between family and friends as well as those we don’t even know. So many people have
lost contact with loved ones and spend their Christmas season alone feeling lost or
rejected.
I chose the passage of Colossians 3:13-15, as a reflection for the month. “Bear with each
other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive
as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all
together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”
Christ came into this world as an infant to live the human life as each of us do without
one big thing. He came in purity, to be the perfect example of what true love and
forgiveness is to look like. God created each of us as individuals and different from one
another for a reason. Each of us falls short of the glory of God and none of us are perfect
in any way. So, why do we try so hard to put those we love in containers?
The verse starts off telling us to “bear with each other and FORGIVE each other,”
holding NO grievances. But Satan loves to separate us and even rewards us, according
to his ideas of what a reward looks like, if we fall in line with his plan.
The verse goes on to say, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” This part of the verse is so
often overlooked. Why do we allow ourselves to be convinced that we are the ones being
wronged? Why do we allow our hearts to give into the schemes and tricks of Satan?
We must “let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts” today and everyday. Let’s put on
LOVE this season which will bind all things together in perfect unity just as Christ
loved us and forgave us.
Wishing All of you and your families the peace and love of Jesus our infant Savior!
Pastor Kathi Kraus