This Christmas Eve will be . . .

This Christmas Eve will be my 30th serving as pastor at MBPPC.

I am writing this week’s installment mostly for those of you who were born in 2000 or after, members of the so-called Generation Z. You are much on my mind, and some of you whom I know personally are in my prayers. Your experience of life is far different from the way mine was at your age. Even in 1995, when I celebrated Christmas Eve at MBPPC for the first time…

…the internet was still very new, and few people were on it…

…there was no such thing as “social media”

…cell phones were, as they say, not a thing…

…Christmas shopping was done almost completely in stores.

Some important things were the same…

…growing up was hard for many, if not most…

…there were wars…

…there was racism and sexism and homophobia…

…AIDS was still mostly not being treated effectively.

Some wonderful things were the same…

…people believed that a loving God was alive and well…

…there were helpers in the world, willing to use their lives in service to others…

…people fell in love…

Christmas was a grounding tradition, with familiar songs and rituals.

As I approach my 30th Christmas Eve at MBPPC, I marvel at how much the world has changed since 1995. As I approach my 30th Christmas Eve at MBPPC, I marvel at how much God and human beings have stayed the same. It remains true:

“The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2).

In Christ, with Gratitude,

Lee