"Connect with Christ this Christmas"


This year has been a most tumultuous year almost beyond comprehension.

When we look over our shoulders and gaze back at where we have come from, we remember the overwhelming tragedies and unprecedented natural disasters that struck our world and displaced so many people this year alone. Earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, tornadoes and flooding in the U.S., and flooding here in Australia and New Zealand.

It’s very hard to forget the images of families shattered by overwhelming tragedies and the sheer scale of the loss of lives was unimaginable and absolutely terrifying. The tears on people faces as they struggled to come to grips with the unfolding destruction left us in silence.

It is within such a context that we are encouraged to connect with Christ this Christmas, to seize the opportunities to connect with the real essence of Christmas. Jesus Christ, the sole reason and purpose of the celebrations.

To connect is to bring together, to join together; it is the fastening together of one being with the other. In short, the making room for a deep understanding of an intimate relationship which God has established for us.

 Like the branch of a vine that cannot have life on its own unless it remains bound to the vine, so are our lives to be bound and connected to Jesus.

You see, even in the midst of our overwhelming suffering, we must seize the opportunities to connect with Christ because it is in Him, that we meet the mystery of God’s most extravagant love for us all and YES….God has most certainly been with us also since January 2011.

The birth of Jesus, His life, His suffering, His death and His resurrection from the dead is the life of one who intimately knows the suffering of our humanity and our world. He has been with us and has cared for us in the past. He does this in the present and will do this for us in the future.

Connect with Christ this Christmas; celebrate God’s extravagant love for the world in Him.  It is God’s gift of His only Son to come among us as a human being and in a world that is full of struggles and despair, for Him to raise our hopes at the deepest level and fulfill our longing for love.

This Christmas Day, may the Lord’s love and peace be with you all, wherever you may be.

Reverend L. Senituli

   

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