Please don’t let the title fluster you. Union with God is not some goal to achieve, a new year resolution. It is not a skill to acquire, but it IS a status. It is a reality, perhaps even a foregone conclusion. It is true that we often feel separated from God. But from His standpoint, that is never the case.

Today is the tenth day of Christmas. It is more than a novelty song. We, along with the Blessed Mary, ponder the mystery of we are the grateful recipients of the great gift, in whom all things were created. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5;17). Luther and Paul remind us that our wisdom becomes foolishness so that foolishness may become wisdom. Put another way, belief in a (seemingly) invisible God makes no practical sense. That’s what the world and our frail thinking tell us. God takes that foolishness and makes it wisdom. All part of the “happy exchange” – our humanity for God’s divinity. God imparts to us what is His. We participate in and with the Christ child. All the wonder and awe we are filled with when holding a newborn – that is a glimpse, a “snapshot” of our union with God.

Whether you are retired from the work world or trying to strrrrrretch out Christmas vacation, do not be in a rush or feel compelled to put aside these gladsome tidings of the nativity. Be assured that feelings of alienation are normal and expected from time to time. The union with God in Christ Jesus will never be severed by Him. Gently nudge your way back into a posture of contemplation and listening to our brother’s heart and voice. Good Christian friends, rejoice in the unconditional love freely offered.

Pastor Art