A lot has happened in this past week.  As always, with life, things crawl along until suddenly they fly past you.  As I shared yesterday morning before the sermon, our roof at HBIC has been having issues ever since the tornado hit two years ago.  With each passing storm, more and more shingles fall from our roof.  The shingles that we have are no longer being made and we therefore had a big problem on our hands…specifically an $81,000 problem to replace the whole roof!

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been in talks with roofing companies and our insurance to discern how best to begin this process and what, if any, help the insurance would be in the cost of this large repair.  As with everything insurance related, this takes time.  And then it didn’t!  Within days, we learned that the insurance would cover a FULL replacement with only our small deductible out of pocket!  In what seemed a few seconds after that amazing news, the contractor called to let us know his schedule opened up and he could start right away!  Hence, yesterday many of you notice an extreme lack of shingles when you arrived at church…the work has already begun!  Praise God for His work on this one!

As I sit in my office this morning with the distant sounds of roofing work being done, my mind began to do its weird correlation thing and I began to think about wrapping paper and presents.  At Christmas, we wrap up gifts in all sorts of shiny and colorful paper.  Ultimately, however, no matter how beautiful or appealing the paper, all anyone cares about is the gift inside.  You can have the nicest of papers but it won’t cover up an unappealing gift (I know it’s the thought that counts but go with me here).

As I listen to the new roof being “wrapped” around our church building, I wonder how God views us.  We are in the process of getting a face-lift of sorts, of getting nice, new wrapping paper put on us.  But God doesn’t care about the wrapping, He cares about what is inside.  As we come into this Christmas season, it is so easy to put on a nice front and look festive and happy.  But what do we look like on the inside?  Is our “Joy to the World” really sung with joy or an outer appearance of joy?  I guess what I’m trying to say is let’s be real this Christmas season.  Let’s worry less about our “wrapping paper” and think more about what’s inside each of us.  God gave us an amazing gift that first Christmas but from outward appearance, Jesus didn’t look like much.  He was wrapped as a baby born in a barn!  Yet it was the best gift we could ask for!  The wrapping can be deceiving.  Let’s be honest before God this season and “Come All Ye Faithful” just as you are to worship our Savior!

In Christ Alone,

Pastor Jan