“After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, robed in white and with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped, singing, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be our God forever and ever! Amen.’ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” Revelation 7:9-8:1
Merry Christmas! Take half and hour, consider the overwhelming gift God has given you, has given me, has given us – a gift for all for all ages. The gift of salvation through the sacrifice of the Son. Sacrifice that begins with God becoming human, forced into the womb of woman. The passion begins at conception and continues through birth as a human, life as a human, persecution, and death as a human on through resurrection as God! Jesus lived the entirety of life on earth without sin, thereby becoming the ultimate sacrifice, The Savior of all. Merry Christmas, open the gift, given by a grace filled, mercy providing God. Receive, live into and live out life abundant as offered by God.