Keep Christmas Going

Pastor's Thoughts
When I was little Christmas definitely didn't end on Christmas day. My parent' five year stint as missionaries forever colored our traditions. In Argentina, the place of my birth, it was twelfth night that every boy and girl look forward . This was the night of the commemoration of the coming of the wiseman/kings to visit Jesus. On that holiest of nights for the little ones of Argentina, the kings made an annual return to each home to put an item or two in the shoes people left out by the door. For most of us Americans, after all the hub-bub of Christmas, this simple tradition was a welcome relief. I looked forward to this one small gift nearly as much as I did Christmas. I remember one year I received one green race car--it was the highlight of my Christmas.
How hard it is to remember that the most special gifts of the Christmas may come long after the day, as we live out the love and receive over and over again the gift of the Christ child. Epiphany reminds us that the light of Christ must keep shining long after the babe has left the manger, and that light is you.
plou