Pastor’s Message for December 2025

Ryan loves to rummage through the kitchen pantry. When he finds Slim Jims, or juice, or Slim Jims, or pudding, or Slim Jims… whatever he is interested in having, he brings it to us to open it. He can do this because he is part of the family. If a stranger came to my house and started rummaging through my pantry, I wouldn’t be very happy! But because he is my son, he gets to go through the pantry, or put his feet on the furniture, or rummage through the refrigerator.

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” –Galatians 4:4-7

The Apostle Paul describes the birth of Jesus as coming at just the right time. There was one moment in history in which the birth of Jesus was meant to happen. The coming of Jesus into the human experience is an event known as the Incarnation. ‘Incarnation’ comes from the old Latin word carne, which is translated as “flesh” but could also be translated as “meat.” What does that mean for us? It means that Jesus was not just God having a brief human experience, but that Jesus is truly and completely human, made of the same “meat” as we are. Jesus is not only “God with Us,” but also “Us with God.”

Through Jesus, we are given a new relationship with God. We are not merely creatures. Through Jesus, we are given a relationship as sons and daughters. In the prayer he taught his disciples to pray, Jesus does not refer to God as “My Father” but as “Our Father.” Through the Incarnation, Jesus invites us to share his unique relationship with God the Father. We are welcomed into God’s family as children. In other words, we can put our feet on God’s furniture and rummage through God’s pantry. We can do this because we are not strangers in God’s house, but through Jesus we are God’s children.

As you prepare for another Advent season, be sure to give thanks to God for the wonderful new relationship that you are given because of the Incarnation of Jesus. And be sure to go rummaging through the pantry. God won’t mind! You’re part of the family!

God loves you, and so do I,
Pastor Jim