“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. They are precious in his sight . . .” That’s the song lyric and that’s the miracle we are celebrating tonight. We are all precious in God’s sight. Every single one of us is precious to God.
The movie “Precious” which came out this year, is about a teenage girl whose name may be precious, but she probably feels like anything but that. She is a teenager having her 2nd child. She has a terribly abusive mother. She lives in poverty, etc. Think of a horrible circumstance and Precious has probably experienced it. But, having experienced a very intense moment with her mother of more hatred, Precious finds the inner strength to break that cycle of abuse and sets herself free.
Jesus came to show all of us that we are precious. All of us have great worth. Amazingly, a tiny baby, born across the world, two thousand years ago, has created a movement that brings us together tonight. It is miraculous, but the bigger miracle is creating a feeling of love in us all.
During her sermon tonight, Cheri talked about her time in seminary. She was questioning whether she really had what she needed to be a church’s pastor. She was depressed. She was lonely. She was doubting herself. She was not sure she would ever serve a church. But then something changed.
Cheri worked for Trinity United Methodist Church in Atlanta during seminary. She served as the youth pastor, working with at risk youth from the local housing project. The church had a homeless shelter. Cheri got to experience urban ministry and things began to change.
Christmas Eve is Cheri’s favorite night of the year, thanks in large part to an experience at Trinity. She agreed to be the overnight worker at the homeless shelter one Christmas Eve. She like to stay in Atlanta for the Christmas Eve Service with her church and then travel the next day to her family. One year, she agreed to take the night shift that night in the shelter. She helped tend to the guests, and then went to the storage room where her cot was located. A few hours later, she got up thirsty, and went to get a drink of water. She found, in the basement of her church where the shelter was, one of the homeless men, sleeping under the Christmas Tree. He was there, not waiting for Santa, but for Jesus.
That was where Cheri’s passion for her ministry was born. Where she got her taste for ministry for those who have been discarded by society, the voiceless, the powerless. The people in Jesus’ time were powerless. They were oppressed by a foreign invader. They were waiting for a messiah who liberate them. They were waiting on a great, rich, powerful, military leader who would free them. They were not ready for an ordinary couple to give birth to a child in a stable. They were not ready for a child whose first crib was a feed trough.
There are a lot of hurting people out in the world. At the Village, we are going to do lots for them. But tonight, on Christmas Eve, we are going to focus on us. There might have been someone who felt great about themselves and their lot in life tonight. But for many of us, we have pain, we have fear, we have doubts. Jesus came with a simple message for us though.
That simple message is that God loves us all, no reservations, no way to separate ourselves permanently from that. Sure, we can do things God won’t like. Sure we can turn away. God still loves us. Every single one of us on this Earth is precious. That’s the message, summed up in one small paragraph.
And that, dear friends is the miracle of Christmas. God came down to be one of us. We are all precious in God’s sight. I pray you feel that miracle in the next day. God bless and Merry Christmas.
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