Today's Focus: Remembering the Holy Innocents     For centuries the Christian Church has commemorated the Massacre of the Holy Innocents on December 28, three days after Christmas. This commemoration, also called Childermas, recalls the sad events prophesied in Jeremiah 31 (First Lesson) and fulfilled in Matthew 2 (Gospel), when King Herod, in his hunt for Jesus, massacred the baby boys of Bethlehem. Innocent of crimes against the state, they became the first to die in the name of Christ. Today we remember these holy innocents and ask God to shine the light of his Christmas Gospel into our dark and violent world.

Today's Focus: The Lord's Redeemed Remember   As one year ends and another begins, we naturally pause and reflect on life. We ponder the changes of the last year, the changes of the last decade, and even the changes over the course of our lives. What a comfort it is to know that we have a God who never changes! And just as he himself does not change, so his word and promises do not change. As we end one year and enter another, we, the Lord's redeemed, remember the Lord's promise, "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more" (Isa 43:25).

Today's Focus: Silent Night, Holy Night     "Silent Night" was first written in German by Austrian Pastor Joseph Mohr, with music composed by Franz Gruber. The carol was first performed on Christmas Eve in 1818 at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria. Legend says the church organ was broken, prompting Gruber to compose a simple guitar accompaniment. Subsequently accompanied by many instruments and translated into may languages, the text paints the picture of the Incarnation. The last phrase is repeated, so in the second stanza we hear it twice: "Christ the Savior is born!" Every word of that phrase is significant, and every line of the Christmas carol describes a Bible truth. We use the beloved humn to ponder the profound message of Christmas.

Today's Focus: Christ the Savior Is Born     Jesus has been God from eternity, holy and majestic. When we look tenderly at the holy infant, we are looking at the same God who once told the prophet Moses, "No one may see me and live." Yet, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds all saw their holy God and survived. How? God became human, hiding his glory within flesh, so that he could come to us without instilling fear or dread. A famous thoelogian once said, "We are to think of the Lord's birth, where the Word became flesh, not as a past event which we recall, but as a present reality on which we gaze." It's not that Christ the Savior was born. It's that Christ the Savior is born.