Oh look, Chicken Thursday! OK, today's mailing is very late, but it is still Thursday on the left coast of Canada.
Every year I try to send out a separate mailing for Christmas Eve, and I intended to do so again this year, but after celebrating an early Christmas with a couple of our kids and their families, Grandma Cybersalt and I were just too tuckered out to put together our regular mailing on time. So I am combining today's mailing with a Christmas Eve mailing - which will actually work much better for all of you keeners living in the earlier time zones.
You may recognize this picture of us in our Christmas masks from last year. These were sewn with great love by my younger sister, Melissa. I mention "great love" because Melissa suffers terribly with rheumatoid arthritis. Even though sewing helps to distract her from the pain she lives with, it's still not easy for her. And so last year, when we received them as a surprise in the mail, I quietly thought, "So much work for something we will be wearing for only a few weeks."
Fast forward one year and here we are wearing them again.
We are all tired of COVID and everything brought with it, taken from us, and what has changed seemingly forever. The pandemic continues to make what used to be simple harder, and what was already hard even more so. In so may ways we thought it would be over by now, or at least easier. But it's not.
We sing a song at our church that speaks to the wearying experience of being disappointed that the change and deliverance we want has not yet come to our lives. It sings of the reality that God will once again do the delivering work in our lives that he has done in the past. It may not be happening as fast as we thought or expected, but it will happen some day.
That is why we celebrate even the hardest of Christmases! We remember that the "back then" good work of God's deliverance, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, is like what He is going to do in the "not yet" of our lives, until all His plans and promises are fulfilled. Remember, God sent a great Savior because our need was great. And where our need IS still great, He can and will deliver for sure.
So whoever you are, wherever you are, and however you are, put your trust in the Jesus of Christmas because He will not fail you.
Today's video share is the song I mentioned above.
Click here to watch it.
From Susan and I, a Merry and Blessed Christmas to you all.
~ Pastor Tim
Last year Christmas had barely passed when I realized I had hardly listened to any Christmas music while I worked or played. I remembered that this year and have been intentionally flooding my days and nights with Christmas music. One of the gems I have found is a concert by Sting.
Mandatory mask wearing and a 50% attendance capacity restriction have returned for churches in our province. I really appreciate what my pastor wrote to our church family and thought I would share it with you. You can read "Ferocious Faith in the Face of Fatigue" at: 