God’s gift of love

Workcampers in Portland, Ore., shared God’s love through serving at SnowCap community gardens.

Workcampers in Portland, Ore., shared God’s love
through serving at SnowCap community gardens.

By Matt DeBall, coordinator of Donor Communications

Christmas is a beautiful season of celebration. Though visible in many ways, one image of celebration is the assortment of beautifully wrapped gifts. Regardless of how many presents surround our Christmas trees, these packages of colorful paper and bows represent the love we have for one another. Additionally, gifts with our names on them raise anticipation and invite us to have hope for what we will receive.

Some 2,000 years ago, God gave us the ultimate gift. Wrapped in a form that we would recognize, God entered our world. Like the presents we place under our decorated trees, the gift of Jesus is an expression of God’s love for us.

Remembering the gift of Jesus in this season, we re-imagine the anticipation that Israel felt for the coming of the Messiah. This experience isn’t very difficult since we see the injustices and disharmony in our world and our anticipation for the second coming of Jesus grows. Held in tension between what we experience now and what we will experience when Jesus returns, we wait with hope for what will come.

As this year comes to a close, we invite you to consider how you can give a gift of love to the Church of the Brethren. Though we all are held in the tension of what has been and what will be, we pray and give with expectation of what God will do.

May you experience God’s presence in this season of waiting, and may you be filled with hope as we celebrate Jesus, God’s gift of love to the world.

Learn more about the ministries of the Church of the Brethren at www.brethren.org or support them today at www.brethren.org/give .

(Read this issue of eBrethren)

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