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Happily ever after

You can feel it can’t you?  If you slow down and rid your mind and heart of all the clutter and noise that clamors for your attention it becomes easy to listen to the expectancy in your heart.  Christmas is coming!  Christmas is that one day of the year that so many find their way back to church.  Why is that?  Is it because deep within our heart we know that Christmas really is significant?  Is it because we understand that this birth 2,000 years ago was no ordinary child?  Deep within the recesses of our hearts we really know that the Creator of the entire universe took on human flesh and became one of us and was called Jesus, the Christ.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God has set eternity in our heart.  This is significant because He has made a way inside each one of us to know that He is not only real, but that we need to come into a relationship with Him.  Well over 300 prophecies were fulfilled regarding Jesus’ birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection – and many more tell us that one day He is returning for all those who Know Him.

In the epic story called “Lord of the Rings”, J. R. R. Tolkien shares a powerful concept for us to think about.  Tolkien’s character Samwise Gamge says, “I wonder what sort of tale we have fallen into.”  You may be asking that same question today.  Sam was musing something many of us have also wondered at various points in our own lives.  We ask, “Is this all there is to life?”  “Is there a point to it all?”  Author John Eldredge, in his book “Epic” says, “Life, for most of us, feels like a movie we have arrived to forty minutes late.”  We sense something big is going on, but we just don’t understand what.  Then we want to know if there is a part in this story for me.

The great news is that you and I are more valuable than we could ever imagine!  The scriptures tell us in Ephesians 1:4 that “God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”  The incredible truth is that this great story that God (the Creator of this incredibly beautiful world and universe) is orchestrating has from the beginning included you and me.  The sad truth is that so many have no clue about any of this.  They have been alienated from these promises by an absolutely lethal and wicked virus called sin.  But Christmas, the birth of the Savior Jesus, changed all of that.  Through Jesus, a way was made to find our way back into the Epic story God is writing.

Maybe you have lost your way in life and want to find your place in the story God is writing.  If you want to find your own “happily ever after” then you need to come back home where God is ready with open arms to receive you.  This Christmas God wants to give you the best gift you will ever receive in your entire life – His son Jesus.  See you at church.

Mark Frueh is pastor at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Minot.

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