Twas the Devotional before Christmas,
and the pastors were trying
to make it to next week
without breaking down and crying.
They had both been sick
in the weeks just before,
but had stumbled and bumbled
their way through the doors.
Bulletins need checking.
Are all things in order?
Christmas Eve is coming!
It's just around the corner!
The sermons need writing.
There are no sermon elves.
There are just a few days,
and they won't write themselves.
Emails are flying.
Elders respond.
Deacons are serving.
Others watch on.
Advent devotionals
were emailed away.
But did anyone read them,
or pray them each day?
Candles are ready.
Wreaths are placed.
The purple and white
of Advent is draped.
But will all our efforts
and words tell the story
of God's great love,
and Christ's great glory?
Will a star really shine?
Will people come and see?
Will a babe be born Lord?
Will we follow his lead?
Perhaps our hope,
and our greatest fear,
is that on this night,
God might actually appear.
Christmas is not about
sermons and stuff.
Most Christmas traditions
and worries are fluff.
Christmas is a memory,
a promise God made,
that all things will change,
that love will invade.
Every hunger is fed.
Every fight will end.
Every tear, wiped away.
Every brokenness, mended.
The lights and flowers,
the red and green,
the wreaths and candles,
the paraments and things...
Aren't meant to be why
we gather and sing.
Or how we know Christmas
is among us again.
We know Christmas has come,
is born here among us
when we feel God's love
and share it to others beyond us.
May we gather together
on this Christmas eve
with great expectations
of miracles believed.
May they change us and move us
from deep inside
to birth God's love throughout
this world, far and wide.
May hope light our fire.
May peace rule our days.
May joy bend our souls.
and love be our way.
Twas the devotional before Christmas
and nothing else matters
than the love of God
in Christ with us, forever.
Rev. Joel Tolbert
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