Christmas Daily Readings
This year’s Christmas readings are gathered around a theme titled, “Our Part”. It’s a theme which acknowledges the role that each one of us plays in our eternal destiny. The Lord our God is the Savior of all, but He can’t prepare us for heaven without our cooperation. He has given us hearts that can love, minds that can think wisely and creatively, and bodies that can do many useful things. His hope and expectation are that we will take these gifts and use them to orient ourselves toward Him and toward others around us. He wants us to consider the role we can best play in any given situation, and then pour our energy in that direction.
This theme shows itself throughout the Christmas story. There, each person or group of people has a part to play in the divine narrative: Zacharias and Elizabeth walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless; Mary and Joseph trust the Lord’s leadership, and they devoutly do what is required of them; the shepherds and wise men come with haste to see the newborn babe, they present gifts to Him, and they fall down and worship Him; Simeon waits patiently for the Lord’s coming, and Anna the prophetess speaks of Him to all who seek redemption. Each of these characters symbolizes a different part of us—and a different part that we have to play—in the birth of the Lord’s love and wisdom in our lives.
What is there for us to learn from the different characters in this story? In what way can their lives, and the example they set, help us do our part in making loving and wise choices, doing useful things, and contributing to the goodness of any situation that we are in this Christmas season?
Each daily email in this program features a scriptural passage from the Christmas story followed by readings from the Writings given for the New Church. Each reading touches on some part that we have to play in our walk with the Lord. At the end of each reading a reflection is offered, along with a few questions or a simple task. There are twenty-five readings in all—one for each day of December up through Christmas day.
We hope you will enjoy these readings, and that they will support you in doing your part this Christmas season.
Again this year, the readings have been prepared by the Glenview New Church Pastoral Staff.
We welcome you to sign up to receive the readings as daily emails.
Merry Christmas, from the New Church.