Emphasis Preaching Journal

A pastor received a letter from a woman in which she recounted her life experience of the past year. It more or less typifies what life is really like for all of us. She said ...

"What a year! We married my brother George last fall. We had our baby, Johnny. Aunt Ida died, and my father-in-law is dying in a nursing home. With the school referendum and the natural joys and sorrows of four children, I feel as if we're on a perpetual emotional jag. Our nextdoor neighbor has kicked her teenage daughter out of the house and told her not to come back. Another neighbor, a mother of four, had a nervous breakdown. And the friendly couple down the street have become alcoholics. What we need in this town is for someone to come along to show us what the meaning of this crazy life is and to preach 'forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness.' Isn't it strange how everything seems to boil down either to being unable on one's own to forgive others, or to feeling guilty and unforgiven oneself."

That letter is really what the Incarnation is all about. It is God's forgiving love coming down in the midst of it all.