What joy is this. I come out of church last night after midweek Advent devotion and I find the car covered with a light dusting of snow! We have not seen snow since the first winter we were here. One Sunday it had snowed overnight and everything was covered, and people were out with cameras taking pictures as we were driving to church. When we came home at noon, the snow was already gone. But snow has a way of covering up and making even the worst stuff pretty nice, doesn’t it?
The snow reminded me of when we returned from winter vacation at Concordia, Milwaukee then,( Now it’s in Mequon.) The city had flooded our baseball field and this served as the neighborhood ice rink. I do not remember anyone suing the city or the college when little Suzy fell and scratched her knee. Nor do I believe the college got any pay for that use, or did the city charge for the water. But the college had a good relationship with the city, and that reminds me of our annual “Gym Nite”.
The coach and his staff planned a weekend for showcasing what the students were doing in athletics. Our play was mostly intramural except for basketball, we had a team in some league or other. But this gym nite was offered over a weekend, and tickets were sold, the event was so popular it was always sold out. And the funds went to pay for the entire athletic program and equipment needed. One year it featured the very first trampoline in the city. And there were students who were very talented athletes.
And that, finally, brings me to the latest Lutheran Witness. It has several excellent articles and is quite newsy. But lately I turn first to the “In Memoriam” page. It lists another classmate called home by our Father. He was one of those excellent gymnasts on the trampoline. The item has maybe ten lines and covers 40 years of active work in God’s Kingdom. Just the bare facts, not any of the results, or the efforts, or the prayers, or the care and concern and shepherding of God’s flock. Just bare dates and names. Maybe that’s as it should be, ever giving God the glory.
For that, finally, is what we celebrate at Christmas time. Christ Jesus was born so we could live eternally, and in the great plan He devised, He sends people to invite other people to the wedding feast He prepared for us. Just as the angels said, “Unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord” Luke 2,11. And the message to Joseph, “You are to give him the name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins”. Matthew 1,21.
That living, vital, life-saving message is ours to cherish, and to share.
“Down in a lowly manger, the humble Christ was born,
And God sent us salvation, that blessed Christmas morn.
So go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere,
Go tell it on the mountain, That Jesus Christ is born.” LSB 388
GPD 12/11/08
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