Traditional activities, including lunch with my daughter at the Rotunda restaurant overlooking Union Square in San Francisco, were scrapped by the combination of the stay-at-home order and indoor dining ban. My bride did, however, prepare a splendid meal for us last night with the fine china and crystal to replicate something close to our Rotunda outing.
Simply stated, the tree is up and decorated festively and my bride has her other decorations throughout our home, but my mind struggles to wrap itself around the reality of the calendar. It helps that my favorite TV music channel is wall-to-wall Christmas music.
We will have a much different spin on the traditional Christmas Eve worship services. GraceWay Church will gather, socially distanced and masked, in our parking lot late in the afternoon—reservations required. Making a reservation to attend a worship service is another “first” in reaction to the pandemic. It flies in the face of doors being open to all, but such are the times. Fortunately, as I observed in an earlier blog, at least we can gather now that the Supreme Court has slapped down New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and indirectly our own ruler, Gavin Newsom.
Gathering to celebrate the birth of the infant Jesus—fully human and fully God—is at the center of our family Christmas traditions. And that’s as it should be. His birth determined the calendar we live by and there are more than 2 billion followers on this globe.
My normal rule, learned by hard experience, is to shutdown any serious news Christmas week and New Year’s week—people simply aren’t paying attention. I violated that Tuesday because the Chinese spy tie to our local Rep. Eric Swalwell demanded a timely response.
So, today’s core message is a simple one: Hope lies in Jesus and his Heavenly Father. It’s the only rock-solid foundation in the world we live in.
Merry Christmas
