Daily Office Readings for Christmas Day, the 1st Day of Christmas: Year 1
Morning, Psalms 2 and 85; Evening, Psalm 110:1-5 and Psalm 132;
Zechariah 2:10 to 13; 1 John 4:7 to 16; John 3:31 to 36
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.” (1st John 4:9)
What an opportunity we have. Through our Lord Jesus we can live a more loving life. Through our Lord Jesus we can be more God-like. This is the annual day and season we have selected to remember the human birth of our Lord Jesus. He was born in a low socio-economic situation, and we are told, in a stable because there was no room for the traveling couple in the inn itself. Even this makes me look at my own life and how I should act if someone struggling really needs a provision that I might take for granted. It’s something to ponder about. How would living through the life of Jesus have me respond to the needs of those whose situation is more desperate than my own?
“In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins,” (1st John 4:10). God loved us before we loved God. However, once we know about God, and how much God loves us, and how God cares for us, we can’t, (I can’t), help but try to love God back. The person of our Lord Jesus, in human form, gives me a Way of loving response whereby I, in my limited human ability, can love God back.
This day, and for the next eleven days, we remember God being born into humanity. God came among us to teach us about love. “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them,” (1st John 4:16). And for this gift of love, I say, Thank You Lord Jesus.
We need to stop fighting and start loving because that’s who we are really made to be. Merry Christmas: Day 1
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Iran and China.
As we listen to what the Spirit is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 