We look for various things from life.  Good health, happiness in our family life, a prosperous community around us, and even meaning and purpose.  For many, these are the indicators of the presence of hope, joy, love, and peace.  They make life worth living and continuing to pursue.  However, if this were all that there was to life, there would still be a void in our souls begging for fulfilment; an itch needing scratched; a nagging suspicion that there is more.  How many of us go through life trying to ignore what lies just underneath the surface?  We think that if we ignore it, it might go away.  We do our best to give it little or no attention.

Think where we would be if Isaiah had ignored the prophecy God was giving to him or where we would be if Joseph had awoken and shook it off as just a bad dream.  What if the shepherds decided to stay in the fields instead of going into Bethlehem to meet the Christ child.  Jesus would have still been born but the world would have missed it. 

The Christmas season and its marvelous story reminds there is more out there than shiny objects and overeating on rich foods.  We must pay attention and look for what is below all this.  On that first Christmas morning, the love of God took on human flesh and walked the earth.  As the song says, “Love came down at Christmas” and it stayed.  One of the reasons the prophet called Jesus “Mighty God, Everlasting Father,” was because he made God’s love tangible and perpetual.  There is nothing in the temporal world that lasts forever except the love of God (and maybe a Christmas fruit cake.)    

As you celebrate Christmas today, pause and remember that on this day, God’s love came down and our response is to daily love God and our neighbor in return.