2010 Christmas Card

It’s officially Christmas Eve! I’ve already been handing out my Christmas cards to everybody that I can connect with, and today I’ll try to connect with everyone that comes to celebrate Christmas with us at Messiah. We have 6 services scheduled (3, 4:30, 6, 7:30, 9:30, and 11 pm). If you are in our neighborhood, consider yourself invited. You don’t need to be a member, you don’t need to bring anything, you don’t need anything at all… just come and join us as we give thanks to God for the greatest Christmas gift of all!

I made 500 Christmas cards. Each one is lovingly hand-crafted… each one is a unique and special gift from me. I, of course, create the content of the card… find some photo/art/graphic… rotate, format, position, and proof… to create a master that is copier ready. I load a heavy ream of paper (500 sheets!!!) into the copy machine, and then… pray that all 500 copy perfectly, and without a paper jam. What makes each card unique is that I hand-fold each and every one; no two are alike! It wasn’t until after I had completed my carpal-tunnel syndrome folding task that someone on the church staff informed me that the new copiers can also produce folded copies, too! Next year, your card won’t be quite so unique.

If you didn’t connect with me… probably because you are out of the area… here is this year’s Christmas card from me:

Front:

Putting Up A Really Big Light Display

Inside:

Emmanuel

by David Alan Hoag – December 17, 2010

Did you see it… a couple of weeks ago past;

That bright streaking trail in the sky?

With colors that quite put a rainbow to shame,

And zigzagged impossibly high?

It was on the TV; it was in all the news.

The images… startling and bright,

Were glowing and twisting with shimmering hues,

As sunset dissolved into night.

Though it looked otherworldly, I knew what it was;

It wasn’t invaders from space.

Just a missile and payload splitting the dusk,

From the Vandenberg Air Force base.

That I knew the exhaust from the boosters and fuel

And the cold, shifting winds on high

Made ice-crystal prisms; it didn’t decrease

The beauty I saw in the sky.

At Christmas, there are those who seek hard to explain

The Child and the virginal birth.

Their ‘cause’ and their ‘science’ have little ‘effect’

For God who is “with us” on Earth.

Christ suffered our weakness, and He suffered our pain;

He came so that we may be free.

This Christmas embrace Him, step onto His path,

Meeting God in eternity.

Blessings to you and your family, as you celebrate God’s love at Christmas time.

My prayer is that the peace, love, and joy that come from the salvation through Jesus Christ… be yours at Christmas, and all through the year.

Your brother in Christ,

Dave Hoag