“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    in the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
    whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Luke 1:76-79

Those words, first spoken by Zechariah as he rejoiced in the birth of his son John, have become the heart of my prayer for our church this Christmas. I pray that we all experience the sunrise of Christmas in our souls today.

Today we celebrate the tender mercy of our God. His answer to sin and death, pain and suffering, fear and despair arrived in the form of an Infant King. A little One who would save us from our sin and show us how life was meant to be lived. A Baby who came as light, and life, and love.

Christmas is the dawn of a new, a wild, and an unbreakable hope.

Merry Christmas.