We begin the Christmas season with decorations, and traditions of trees, lights, music and nativity sets.
Most of us have one special one we bring out each year.
We have a very simple one we purchased on our first year together. It was very expensive at the time as we were newly weds with little money, we found it at a local drug store and although it was above our budget we wanted a first nativity for our home.
Every year for 43 years we have set it out as a remembrance of many things.
The Christmas story has been told in so may ways.
Always the same characters and always the same story of hope.
We have seen children dressed up in Mary and Joseph outfits carrying a tiny doll representing the baby Jesus in church programs.
We have watched TV shows about the Nativity or movies that tell the story in a more real narrative way.
Each of us holds a reason for the season.
It can’t always be Santa and his sleigh or Rudolph the red nosed Reindeer. These are wonderful traditions for us, even Charley Brown and the crew sharing the Christmas story is tradition.
In the final decision making it is Jesus and his story that makes the Christmas season complete.
One cannot hear, “Oh Holy Night” and not capture the beauty of the birth, the Holiness of the season and the silence of the night.
The story begins with a simple couple who followed the path laid out for them through their obedience and faith.
It wasn’t easy, it was never meant to be.
It is a story that has lasted for years and years because it is real, and it gives hope and it tells us of God’s love for us.
The story begins.
In the Old Testament of the bible and then moved into the New Testament. There are many characters and many details.
The story. The story of life, hope and precious love.
As we move through the story let us remember nothing happened without a plan, nothing happened without a reason.
The story begins and we are told, Mary kept all the things in her heart and thought about them often.
Luke 2:19