Can You Spot the Difference? (12/27/2025)

One of my favorite puzzles as a youth and even as a 75-year-old are the “Spot the Differences” puzzles with two pictures side by side and the challenge to find all the difference between them. Some are easy to spot, but others are more subtle. This morning as we continue to celebrate the Christmas Season, will others be able to spot the differences in us because of our recognition of the gift of the Son of God to humanity, to us?

Will we be more loving? Will we be more present to one another? Will our joy be immediately apparent? Will our generosity of self be more consistent and observable? Have we allowed the great gift which we received and celebrated to inform our minds, to conform our hearts, and to transform our very being?

It’s not what happens to us that makes us who we are, it is what we do with what happens to us. It is what we make of it or, more accurately, what we allow it to make of us. The world truly needs the miracle of Christmas received and registered in those who claim to know and live Christ. Will today bring such a revelation as we resume our regular activities? The very nature of the feast gives me hope that this may be.

As we go forth, still within the season of Christmas, let us take with us from the nativity scene and celebration, the sense of wonder that opens us to the LORD’s power and presence at work in us and the world. Let us be people of hope so large and so grand that others can not only sense it but see it. Let us bring the love we have received, and which has been amplified through this celebration flow through us to those whom we encounter. And may we proudly associate ourselves with Christ who came for us, who came to us, and who remains in us.

Until tomorrow, may we all love well.