Christmas Love Letter

The past few days I've been working on our Christmas card and letters.  I sort of get carried away with this task every year.  It is a multi-day task that goes like this:

November - - move Heaven and Earth to get a decent family picture...somehow.
(This year, my sister-in-law and her daughter helped greatly with that task.  Thanks Linda and Val!)

Find a deal on the cards and hopefully one with a Christian message.  Order and receive.

Put cards in envelopes.

Find the Christmas-y return address labels that the charities send us.  Apply, hopefully straight.

Write the Christmas letter.  Print it on the fancy stationery.  Again, hopefully straight.  (My score was about 60% of them this year.  The printer and I had a go-round.)

Fold the letters appropriately.  (This year I was thinking our envelopes were squarish instead of rectangularish - - - I can't explain this lapse - - and so folded the letters squarishly.)
Fold letters again.

Stuff letters into some of the envelopes.  Those who are close family and/or who know us well already know about our year's happenings and don't wish to be reminded of them, I'm quite sure!

Address cards.

Give cards to husband to apply Christmas stamps and mail.  (Note: if you wait too late, the Christmas stamps will have sold out.  So, this really should be done in November.)

Collect picture cards from other dear ones and post on side of double oven's kitchen cabinet to enjoy all year.

Yes, that is why I go to ALL the trouble described above.  I love to greet far-flung loved ones and to hear "glad tidings" from them in response.  Looking at their picture cards all year is a blessing and a reminder of the goodness of God.

So, tomorrow, the 17th of December, I'll flex my fingers and start addressing.
With joy, delight, and anticipation!

*******

WHO gets a Christmas letter and just throws it aside without reading it?  Not many, I'd guess.
I was thinking, though, about how God sent His love letter to us, in the human form of His Son Jesus, and how many of us poor, lonely people just push Him aside or throw Him away, not realizing the transcendent love we have rejected.

No matter how precious and special or funny or sad our Christmas letters are to each other, they pale in comparison to God's revelation of Himself to us.  And, so often, we set His message, revealed in Scripture, aside.  Or, we push it to the back of the line... back so far, we don't even get to it in our whirlwind days, our harum-scarum days, at all.

Here are excerpts from the greatest Christmas love letter of all time:

"And this shall be a sign unto you, Ye shall find the babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger..."  (Luke 2:12)

"And you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins."  (Matthew 1:21)

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."  (John 3:16-17)

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
He sent His Son to us below
His love so great for us to know
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!
Amen.