(The Monday letter from the pastor is a ministry of Imagine Church and is published fifty times a year; this will be the last installment of the year 2023, and will resume on Monday, January 8, 2024. I am grateful to Christina Jones, our skilled Church Administrator, for formatting and producing this each week, and I hope you enjoy receiving it as much as I enjoy writing it and Christina does publishing it. May the joy of Christ’s incarnation dwell in your home and household this Christmas.)
Merry Christmas, Cherished Friends,
We began Advent this year with a verse written by the apostle Paul in Galatians, chapter 4. Paul was speaking to primarily a Roman or Greek audience in the city of Galatia. For centuries the Jews had waited for a Messiah; “but when the set time had fully come” (God has essentially marked His calendar), “God sent His son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law” (Galatians 4:4-5), “so that we might receive adoption as children.”
As the Galatians read this, and as they passed this letter around, this was staggering. The invitation is open to you, not simply to be forgiven by God, not simply to have things to be made right with God, but to be adopted into the family of God. In other words, once you have accepted the invitation, you are no longer a servant. You are no longer relating to God as a taskmaster, as a judge, as a rule-keeper. Christmas means something else. Now, you are God’s child. You have been invited to follow the example of your Savior and address your heavenly Father as Abba. Dad. Abba. Father.
The French poet who penned the words to the song we now call, “O Holy Night,” got it right when he wrote, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till he appeared” — and we’ve sung this next line a thousand times. But maybe for the first time, the true significance will dawn on you. “And the soul felt its worth.” And the soul felt its worth. Father. Adopted. Daddy.
Betsy Goodwin of our church family was adopted when she was young. Our son Joshua was adopted, and I’m sure there are others, too. I often wonder if adopted children fully understand how they are loved by their adoptive families. You see, the rest of us, in our families, we had our children. But Betsy and Joshua were pursued. They were chosen. And as I have come to know their stories, it’s not an exaggeration to say they were saved, by the parents who adopted them. I pray that Joshua will never doubt the worth and the value that Tyra and I put on him when we adopted him into our family. Because his soul has incredible, incredible, incredible worth.
Now, I don’t know what you think you are worth to God. I don’t know how you view God. But Christmas is about God sending His Son so that we could become God’s children. Do you want to know what you’re worth to God? You’re worth Christmas. You’re worth Christmas. You’re worth Christmas. You’re worth God sending His Son into the world born of a woman, born under the law, so that you could be adopted, as the child of almighty God.
Christmas is what you’re worth to God,
Bruce Jones, Pastor Imagine Church
