Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

 

 

This morning we flipped over the final circle on our Advent Calendar!  Oh what a joy to finally be at our Lord's Nativity!  I remember flipping over the first circle wondering what the fast would bring and if I was up to the task. 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to admit, I wasn't the most graceful Adventer.  (I know that's not a real word.)  With every fast I see one or two places where I am lacking and I don't like it.  Life is so much easier in the disillusion that I am good enough and all my troubles are someone else's fault. 

 

But the reality is, and the fasting seasons make this clearer, my sufferings are a result of my own sins.  I have no one to blame but myself.  But how do I repent?  How do I change my ways? 
 

There is new life in the world, a new beginning in the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  And with the new year approaching, this is as good a time as any to stop for a moment and ask ourselves: Where are we a slave to our passions and what are we going to do about it.  Just look at today's epistle reading for Christmas morning:

St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 4:4-7

BRETHREN, when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir of God through Christ.

 

It's time for us to start thinking of how we are no longer going to live like slaves (to our passions) and live a life where we are free, and worthy to be "heirs of God through Christ." 

 

Christ is Born! 

Glorify Him!