SEE the Child

Good evening!

Last Saturday, we had our annual charge conference (an organizational part of the institutional United Methodist Church). This year, we shared our conference with two other churches in the area. It was wonderful to hear how God was moving in and through other United Methodist churches. Before the meeting started, the secretary from Community UMC in Westcliffe saw me, gave me a big hug, and handed me her latest entry into their church newsletter. She wanted to share with me a part of her journey since I last saw her.

As a pastor, I get handed many things and I get asked to read more articles, emails, and books that I can keep up with. I have to admit, there are times that my pile gets so big, I do not read everything. I can't if I want to stay sane. However, I am able to get to most of them and, luckily for me, this one was a short one.

The bulk of the article talked about an experience her daughter had with her two children, but what struck me most was the quote she shared at the end of her article. She said:

"Philips Brooks, whose UMC carol #230, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," routinely rolls off our tongue tips each Yuletide, once penned something less well known: 'He who helps a child helps humanity with an immediateness which no other help given to human creature in any other age of human life can possibly give again.' Wow. Is Brooks enjoining us to SEE in every child a Christ Child? Then to ACT accordingly - not frenetically spend and consume - in ALL Seasons? Seems to me. How about you?"

As we prepare our hearts for the new life that the Christ child brings, it is important to ask ourselves as well, "Do I receive every child as I hope to receive the Christ child this season? Do I SEE the children around me? Do I SEE that God created them - the unborn, the infant, the toddler, the terrible threes, the child, the tween and the teen?" Then ask yourself, "Do I act and treat them in ways that honor their Creator?"

It has been said that you know the spiritual state of a person, a community, and a nation by the way they treat their children. May we welcome the children among us with the joy and open arms that we hope to receive the Christ child this season. May we SEE their needs and ACT in ways that love them and honor who they are, just as God sees our needs and acted by coming to us in the form of an infant child.

"Gracious God. Thank you for the gift of Your Son. As we receive Him, remind us that we must also receive all of your children. As you came to us as a child dependent upon His mother and father, we come to You...dependent upon Your grace and love. Give us eyes to see the Christ child all around us and give us the strength and courage to act out Your love, not only this season, but in all seasons of our lives. In Your Name we pray. Amen."