Soon and very soon!

We are counting down the days now...online stores are cutting off deliveries, most trees are up, decorations are hung, even stockings "with care." Soon we will celebrate once again the birth of the Christ Child, the child who "changes lives, changed the world, changes us!" as Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says in his Christmas Letter.

How will you be changed? How will you change lives? the world? Bishop Curry concludes by saying, "Let this Christmas day be the first day of a new world!"

The words of Isaiah remind us of the magnitude of this birth. Predicted in a collection of prophecies gathered in the 8th century BCE, still today we read, mark and inwardly digest them...This mighty king, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace comes to us in swaddling cloths, born in a stall, a cave surrounded by dirt and fodder and muck.

How will this Birth change you this year and how will you change the world as a result...

Isaiah 9:6-7 King James Version (KJV)

6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Let this Christmas be the first day of your new world, my new world, our new world...soon, very soon!