Pray As You Stay - Christmas Day (Evening)

Evening - It came upon the midnight clear

 
Jesus is the compassionate one. He is with us in our joys and sorrows; he is with us in our loneliness; he understands what it is like to be anxious, to face opposition and rejection; to experience physical suffering. Having been through it all, he can listen to each one of us, share our sorrows and help carry our burdens. Remember he says, “Come to me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.
 
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Word became flesh, became human, fully human. In the letter to the Hebrews, we are told something important about Jesus we can too easily forget: he can sympathise with us in our weakness because he went through everything that we go through.
 
When we celebrate the Son of God becoming human, we celebrate a friendship: his with us and ours with him. Jesus travels with us on the journey of life and is with us every step of the way. He will never let us go, never let us down. His friendship is a saving friendship.
 
We end this time of Christmas Day prayer by hearing words from the First letter of John:
“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”
 
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.