Christmas 2010

Dear friends and ministry partners,
Advent is upon us…and then, comes Christmas. We’re glad the Christian calendar celebrates the Christmas season till Epiphany! As we wait for the Hope of Israel’s coming ….let us prepare a room for Him in our hearts. Let us not rush into Christmas – but linger….and think about God’s great love for us… He gave up His Son. And His Son’s great love for us. He has made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of (sinful) men. (Philippians 2:7)
Blessings to you and yours this blessed season – Lina Padilla and Carmena Cruz, MEANS USA

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it…..And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” — John 1: 1-4, 14 (New American Standard Version)”

“Was there a moment known only to God, when all the stars held their breath, when the galaxies paused their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word who had called it into being, went with all His love into the womb of a young girl, and the universe start to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clap their hands for joy?

Power. Greater power than we can imagine, abandoned, as the Word knew the powerlessness of the unborn child, still unformed, taking up almost no space in the great ocean of amniotic fluid, unseeing, unhearing, unknowing. Slowly growing, as any human embryo grows, arms and legs and a head, eyes, mouth, nose, slowly swimming into life until the ocean in the womb is no longer large enough, and it is time for birth.

Christ the Second Person of the Trinity, Christ the Maker of the universe or perhaps many universes, willingly and lovingly leaving all that power and coming to this poor sin-filled planet to live with us for a few years to show us what we ought to be and could be. Christ came to us as Jesus of Nazareth, wholly human and wholly divine, to show us what it means to be made in God’s image.” — Madeleine L’ Engle