Holidays stir spirit of thanksgiving
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Editor,
Here we are, rushing through the final days of another year, mid-term elections behind us, Thanksgiving and Christmas just ahead (substantiated by the current displays at America’s largest retailer). I love the carols of Christmas; they stir the spirit of thanksgiving within me. I’m delighted that Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations will soon commence in homes and churches throughout the valley and across America.
There is a line in one of the Christmas carols that always grabs my attention; “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.” Humankind in every culture since the beginning of time, as we have known it, has thought about and openly reflected upon the idea of a Supreme Being, a God of some kind. But no human has ever seen God (John 1:18). God is an invisible spirit (John 4:24). Earth’s people have desired to know God, believing that God is, they have longed to have a relationship with this God; a relationship that satisfies the deepest yearnings of the heart; yearnings which this very God has put within every human breast. Man knows that God is (Romans chapter one); that to find Him is the most significant and rewarding quest of his earthly life. For many the question remains, how can a person know God?
Charles Wesley, the writer of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, celebrates the fact that God chose to reveal himself through his incarnate birth in Bethlehem. Catch the phrases once again: “Christ by highest heaven adored; Christ, the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold him come, offspring of the Virgin’s womb: veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.”
“Immanuel”, which means, “God is with us.” The Son of God became the Son of Man. The manger cradled the Creator (Colossians 1:15-20) who chose to become “flesh”; to live on planet earth so that man’s search for God might be satisfied in Jesus Christ who said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”(John 14:9). Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.
Harvey Town
Polson
