MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Remember the reason He came and became human. He did so to reconcile all of humanity to himself and to do this, he became incarnate, became flesh, so all flesh can be redeemed.

Luke 2:10-14 Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

You are included. CELEBRATE!

Boyd "Live Nude and Prosper" Allen

"May the Lord protect our nudity from the sight of those who will not benefit, and may he allow us to be seen by those who will."

CNC

We sang this at our Christmas Eve service last night.

O come o come Emanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emanuel shall come to thee, o Israel

The song talks about the over 500 years of physical and political exile (70 years physical and over 400 years political) yearning for their messiah to come rescue them, returning them to that communion with God.

Christ (Messiah) did come. Just not in the form they expected.

I was thinking aobut what a rough year its been for many people. We couldn't think of things we wanted for Christmas since we already had tons of stuff and realized that we had the three of us here to celebrate Christmas. Our presence was our present. The same with the birth of Jesus. His presence today was our present and we still get to use it.

And that is one present do you want to return, return to earth that is!
"His presence today was our present and we still get to use it."
And even then, as you said, he is already present with us.

Often we see Jesus as a gift of God, which he is a gift of God, that is, God giving us the gift. Just like the holy spirit, we get the gift of the holy spirit.

But have you considered that the gift of God IS God? Same as the holy spirit is the gift of the holy spirit. God's gift to us is Himself, literally, not just God presenting us a gift of Jesus with a smattering of the holy spirit for flavor.

When you see God as Triune, then you see God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, ONE GIFT. So when the "gift of the holy spirit" was sent, it was not just the gift of the holy spirit (it's substance), but the gift is the holy spirit, which includes and is the Gift of the Triune God.

Boyd