Second Sunday in Christmas

Today's Link
Livenlife

Saying for the Day
God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
~St. Augustine
Picture of the Day
Alex and our chocolate fountain

In Liturgical churches this is the Second Sunday of Christmas. Because the season of Christmas is 12 days long and Christmas is a movable holiday every year doesn’t have a second Sunday of Christmas. This one , however, does.
The Gospel for the Second Sunday of Christmas is always the same where the gospels on most other Sundays change on a three year cycle. It is John 1:10-18.
It contains one of my very favorite verses.
“ 16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. “
Ours is a God who pours out his blessings upon us and then pours out even more.
Ours is a God who forgives us and then as we fall forgives us again and again.
Ours is a generous God who calls and when we walk away calls again and again.
God pours out grace and then tops that with more grace.
What wonderful words.
I have found them to be true in my life.
So I just love this text and look forward to the service and the sermon part of the way in which God pours out that grace.
Some who read this blog know what I’m talking about.
Some others think I’m sort of out of it. That’s okay. The blessings come whatever you think. Grace upon grace.
When you are given so much you have to talk about it. That’s just the way things are.
I need to tell you of the One who gives grace upon grace.
I don’t need to judge you. I don’t need to feel better than you , indeed I’m not.
I Just need to tell you that in my life the grace of God is poured and then poured again.
I won’t be upset if you laugh at me. That’s okay.
I won’t be upset if you reject God. That isn’t my task.
My job is just to tell you of the grace and then of the additional grace.
Yep! Grace upon grace.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Pastor Joan is having a hard time with the sermon today. It is not that she dislikes the text. It’s not that she doesn’t understand the concept of grace upon grace. It is instead that it seems like God is about to answer her prayer and pour grace into her life and she can’t tell anybody.
She has been married five years and has no children. She has prayed every day that God would give her a child but her prayers seem to have either been ignored or answered no. She and her husband saw a special Doctor who told them that he didn’t see much chance of them having a baby and he explained in great detail why. They understood only the part about not being able to have a baby. For her to have a baby the Doctor said would be a miracle.
So she had continued to pray. They thought of adopting but that is not easy to do in this day and age when people rather abort a child than give it up for adoption. She and her husband were on a list . But they were far down and it was a long list.
But last night she got a phone call that could change everything.
Grace upon grace.

Wrap Up

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