Welcomed by God: The Deeper Good News of Christmas
This past week, we celebrated with our English students in Portland and Lewiston, (check out the photos below), marking their progress and the many ways they are growing in confidence, speaking, and comprehension. These gatherings are always filled with hugs, laughter, and joy--but they celebrate far more than academic achievement. They feel less like ceremonies and more like family parties.
At The Root Cellar, our organizational values begin in a distinctive way: "In the way of Jesus, we create a culture of…" followed by five words, each carrying deep meaning. The first is Welcome: "We are hospitable to all, recognizing each person as an image bearer of God."
In recent months, that language has begun to sound radical to some--political to others, or like the call of an activist movement.
For us, it is simply our attempt to be obedient to Jesus. It’s a calling to welcome neighbors from near and far who comes through our doors.
This season invites us to reflect on the Christmas story: Mary, "great with child," and Joseph traveling to an overcrowded Bethlehem to be taxed. Desperate to find a safe place to give birth, they end up in a stable. It is natural--and worthwhile--to draw parallels between their experience and the realities of people who find themselves on the margins, searching for home and belonging.
But what if we are sometimes looking at the story backward--using our present circumstances as the lens through which we interpret the birth of Christ?
What if, instead, we allowed the deep truth of that story to become the lens through which we see everything else?
At the center of Christmas is not Mary and Joseph, nor is it you, me or those we serve. It is true--and deeply good--that God calls us to welcome others as His image bearers. But that is not the ultimate Good News of Christmas.
The angels did not announce to the shepherds that a vulnerable couple was in need in Bethlehem. It wasn't a call to action or charity. They proclaimed that God had launched His rescue plan through the birth of a baby--born in obscurity, humility, and seeming insignificance. This was not an announcement inviting the shepherds to the noble task of hospitality to an outsider. Much more than that - It was God opening His arms to us.
The apostle Paul writes to the church in Galatia:
"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."
That is the goodness of that night in Bethlehem. As the angels declared to the shepherds, _"Unto you is born this night a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."_ Jesus is the center of the story--the clearest revelation of God's relentless love, arms wide open, welcoming us _"so that we might receive adoption"_ into His family.
It is easy to place our worries, our politics, and our moment in history at the center of the Christmas story. When we do, we miss something far more wonderful: God has come. God is with us. And God welcomes us as we are--not as we should be--because none of us are as we should be.
Because of that baby born long ago, you and I are welcomed into the family of God.
Last week, I shared this truth with our team, volunteers, and neighbors from near and far as we gathered for a Christmas party. It was a glimpse--just a taste--of that greater reality: people from different places and stories, welcomed together because of one child.
Sally Lloyd-Jones, author of The Jesus Storybook Bible, asks and answers the question in her retelling of Christmas: "Is it too wonderful?"
She answers boldly, "Nothing is too wonderful for God."
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