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By Tim Hunt
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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add...
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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in addition to writing editorials for more than 15 years. I have served as a director of many non-profits in the Valley and the broader Bay Area and currently serve as chair of Teen Esteem and on the advisory board of Shepherd?s Gate. I also served as founding chair of Heart for Africa and have travelled to Africa seven times to serve on mission trips. My wife, Betty Gail, has taught at Amador Valley High (from where we both graduated) since 1981. She and I both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as did both of my parents and my three siblings. Given that Cal tradition, our daughter went south to the University of Southern California and graduated with a degree in international relations. Since graduation, she has taken three mission trips and will be serving in the Philippines for nine months starting in September.
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Such a different holiday season, the reason for the season remains the same
Uploaded: Dec 24, 2020
Today is Christmas Eve and, like Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day tomorrow, likely it will be strikingly different than any other.
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
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