Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. I want to share with you a prayer that was in one of my devotional readings last week. This is a prayer by Robert D. Hershey. He writes or prays:

"Not that many shopping days till Christmas. That, dear God, is bad news. It is not just the shopping, but everything else too: getting presents, buying cards, writing, mailing, baking meals, parties. Can it be, Lord, that I'm working on the wrong things? Help me to concentrate on the right thing, the good news of your coming again into this darkened world with light and hope. After all, getting ready for Christmas shouldn't mean pressure and weariness at all, but quiet minds and hearts spilling over with joy."

I love that prayer and I find that it rings so true, really for every single year. This time of year, for the whole of the Advent season, from Thanksgiving on, so much of our attention and energy is focused on purchasing and planning and baking and writing those cards and mailing those cards. And we get out of focus on what Advent is all about.

This is why we're doing our devotion time together today in Bethlehem in a very important stable. Last night we had the Bethlehem Marketplace and we took time to pause and to hear the story of Joseph and Mary as they entered into Bethlehem, finding no room anywhere, giving birth to Jesus—Jesus the Savior, the light of the world—in a stable. Mary, in her portrayal or her sharing of the story, exclaims that she couldn't believe she put her baby in a feeding trough. And yet that is where Jesus was laid as a lowly infant. The Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, entered into creation as one of us to be a servant, a humble servant for all of us, serving us all the way to the Cross.

In the Gospel of John, we read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in darkness and the darkness did not overcome it."

The rest of this week, as we are entering into the fourth week of Advent and just a week away from Christmas morning where we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, take time to stop, to set aside the shopping, the getting, the planning, the writing, the mailing, the baking, and to concentrate on the light that has entered into the world and the light that has promised to come back and to gather us into his glorious light for all time and eternity.

Can it be, Lord, that I'm working on the wrong things? We pray with Robert Hershey: Help me to concentrate on the right thing, the good news of your coming again into this darkened world with light and hope. After all, getting ready for Christmas shouldn't mean pressure and weariness at all, but quiet minds and hearts spilling over with joy.

I look forward to worshiping this fourth Sunday in Advent and then looking to worship the coming of our King as we celebrate his birth on Christmas Eve. I hope that you will join us for that worship celebration and service, and invite a friend or a neighbor or a family member so that they too can hear the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ, who came as light into the world to take away our sin and to promise to be our light for all of eternity.

God bless.

Pastor Malinak