Norwich United Church          

Christmas 2009

Dear Friends,

At this Christmas time, I wish you the countless blessings of the Christmas babe who changed our world so many years ago!  And, as we usher in the new year, it is also my wish that God may bless you and yours richly and abundantly now, and in the years to come! 

Too soon that special day of celebrating will be here and gone!  How quickly December 25th comes, and how quickly it passes.  Enjoy your day.  Feast with gusto.  Revel in the company of family and friends.  Be filled with the anticipation and the joy of the children as they wait for Santa and then open their gifts.  Let the beauty of the wrapped gifts fill your lives with beauty.  For, all of these things we do today are the embodiment of the first Christmas there was.  Although we may not be able to hold the baby Jesus in our arms, all of these things put flesh on the bones of the baby that was born 2000 years ago. 

The message of Christmas is a message of love and beauty.  It is a message of anticipation and hope.  It is a message of mystery and surprise.  In all of the ways we celebrate Christmas today we live out these messages.  Just as God’s love for us is alive in Jesus, our love for others is alive in the gifts we share with those we know, and those we don’t know.  As we share Christmas with family and friends, we remember that Jesus came to earth as part of a family, and he draws all of us who follow him into one family.   

Included with this letter you will find some envelopes.  These are offered to you as an opportunity to share with others in need this unconditional love born in the child Jesus.  With your help, Norwich United Church can continue to care for the sick, bring hope to the grieving and stand with the young and the vulnerable.  

Do enjoy your Christmas celebrations, whenever and whatever they may be.  May they once again bring to life for you and yours that first Christmas, when God came to live among us.  In this year 2009, may they put flesh on the bones of the Christmas babe, and may you gently hold him and care for him as you share him with others in the coming months and years. 

God bless you all! 

Donna Bowman-Woodall