A Christmas Letter at Easter

Each Christmas season I receive a few cards stuffed with Christmas letters that begin something like this: “Our Year in Review”, “This Year’s [so-&so] Family Adventures”, or even a statement about what the sender means, including their anxiety about having to perform said such annual ritual, “Our Obligatory Annual Family Christmas Letter”. I personally have never written a letter such as this and I admit that when I receive one, I don’t always read them thoroughly. Sometimes I simply glance at the picture, the title, the greeting, and the closing lines and with a warmed heart and a smile, then set the letter aside thinking to myself, “I will read that through later.” 

Funny thing about that is, I don’t often go back and follow through. As the New Year turns and I take down all the holiday decorations, the Christmas letters get placed in a pile that gets moved from spot to spot before eventually ending up in the recycle bin. 

Spring arrives and as the Lent and the Easter season comes into full bloom alongside spring flowers, those Christmas letters of mine are long forgotten. My sights are set on warmer temperatures and the coming summer days I will spend traveling, taking morning walks, and doing a variety of other delightful activities. I will have left behind thoughts of the Christmas miracle and God’s human entry into the world so long ago. Each year I “trade in” my Christmas letters on the hope that another letter will come. I am hopeful but not many arrive, and there doesn’t seem to be a tradition of sending letters at Easter.

 I admit that I don’t write many letters myself. However, there is One who wrote a Christmas letter and was faithful to follow up, sending the greatest Easter letter of all time. The God of all creation. The story of Christmas for us is more than decorations, presents, and letters from friends. The Christmas story is about a Christmas Letter from God and the follow up letter that came as the ultimate gift at Easter. Year after year we are reminded of the greatest author of all time and place. God sent us a Christmas letter! God sent us an Easter letter! God followed through! God loves us with a never-ending faithfulness! 

May your Easter season be filled with the words sent from God in the greatest letters ever! Peace and blessings, 

Pastor MP