The Oasis - December 11, 2019

December 11, 2019
by Pastor Dan

     Life is all about new beginnings. Sunrise after a long night. Eggs and flour and sugar and all manner of things being transformed into something completely new when it comes out of the cake pan. Newborn babies, to whom everything is new, and all the animals and plants that are born every spring. The fresh new world born after a snowfall, unmarred by footsteps, glistening undisturbed on tree branches and power lines in the warm sunlight. New careers, new schools, new opportunities that wait around every corner. The rebirth of a butterfly from its cocoon.
     The world we live in is full of new beginnings, and our inward life should reflect that. Every day we have the opportunity to be a new person, to turn a new page, and to create a new beginning for someone else as well. Every moment is a chance for a new insight, a new solution, or new comfort springing from an unexpected corner.
     The Christian story mirrors that reality. It’s all about birth and rebirth, and about the new beginnings God’s unyielding forgiveness provides. If we let him, Christ can transform our own lives, and while he was born two thousand years ago, every year he can be born again in our hearts. Christmas isn’t just a holiday to remember a thing that happened once. In Christmas we can celebrate a thing that happens all the time! Christ is a new beginning for us always, in Christ we can be a new beginning for ourselves, and through Christ we can be a new beginning everywhere we go an in everything we touch.
     This Christmas season, be the Christ that is coming into this world. Everywhere you go, bring the love, light, example, and Good News of Christ that first came to this Earth two thousand years ago. We have a Christmas… but we don’t really need a day  for that. Christ is born every day through us. Through you.

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”   2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Pastor Dan’s song of the week: “Right Now,” by Van Halen