"The Wonder of Christmas!"

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod.

Matthew 2:1

One of my all-time favorite Christmas presents is a book. My mom gave it to me one Christmas. It was her only Christmas present during a season of her impoverished childhood. She and her sister and brother lived with my Grandpa and Grandma Saunders in La Grande, Oregon (where I was born). My Grandpa, Winston Saunders, worked on the railroad when he could. It was Christmas 1947 during the hard days of WWII. It was a tough Christmas that year. The book was Grimm's Fairy tales and it was her only present that year. For many kids in that day and age there was not a lot and one present was a treasure. Inside the front cover it says, “To Jane from Aunt Bernice and Uncle Carl.” I think my mom gave the book to me because my German Shepherd, Gengis Khan, had eaten the cover off of it when I was a kid. This is one of the same books my mom read to me whenI was a boy (who had such a vivid imagination that my report cards often held only this positive comment, “Timmy has such an imagination that he has a hard time staying in the classroom.”) Every time I open this book, which sits behind my desk with other favorites, I am caught up in the wonder of Christmas.

I pray that somehow this year you are touched by the wonder of Christmas. I think that our entire campus will sparkle. At the Santa Claus Conspiracy and each weekend at every worship service it is going to be Christmas. We will also be doing our family-to-family Christmas blessing for those struggling this year. And as a church we are committed to support Together For Transformation and provide a Christmas party for every family who lives in the dump. For our Glory of Christmaspresentations and our Candlelight Communion services on Christmas Eve - if we all help a little we can decorate, we can bless, we can tell the story of Christmas and most of all we will all experience the wonder of Christmas. My dad is directing “The Glory of Christmas” which will be a live,three-dimensional picture unlike anything in the world. We will present it for three nights and have the capacity of reaching well over 3,000 just for this one event. Won’t you consider inviting a friend or neighbor to see this great wonder of Christmas? Merry Christmas 2009! It is going to be a great one!

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White