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Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105
(262) 763-3021
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Pastor Scott Carson
Grace Church of Burlington
December 25, 2005
This Christmas season please don’t miss the true meaning and the wonderful things that Christ has done for you as a result of His birth. On the pages of history, during America’s terrible Civil War, we find this interesting footnote. It was during the dark winter of 1864 at Petersburg, Virginia, when the Confederate army of Robert E. Lee faced the Union divisions of General Ulysses S. Grant. The war was now three and a half years old and the glorious charge had long since given way to the muck and mud of trench warfare. Late one evening one of Lee’s generals, Major General George Pickett, received word that his wife had given birth to a beautiful baby boy. Up and down the line the Southerners began building huge bonfires in celebration of the event. These fires did not go unnoticed in the Northern camps and soon a nervous Grant sent out a reconnaissance patrol to see what was going on. The scouts returned with the message that Pickett had had a son and these were celebratory fires. It so happened that Grant and Pickett had been contemporaries at West Point and knew one another well, so to honor the occasion Grant, too, ordered that bonfires should be built.
What a peculiar night it was. For miles on both sides of the lines fires burned. No shots fired. No yelling back and forth. No war fought. Only light, celebrating the birth of a child. But it didn’t last forever. Soon the fires burned down and once again the darkness took over. The darkness of the night and the darkness of war.
The good news of Christmas is that in the midst of a great darkness there came a light, and the darkness was not able to overcome the light. It was not just a temporary flicker. It was an eternal flame. We need to remember that. There are times, in the events of the world and in the events of our own personal lives that we feel that the light of the world will be snuffed out.
But the Christmas story affirms that whatever happens, the light still shines.
Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." My friend, is He the light of your life? Or, are you still living in darkness? Why not accept God’s Christmas gift and commit your life to Christ?
Perhaps, you have accepted Christ as the light of your life but you have let unconfessed sin darken your soul. Give yourself a wonderful Christmas gift, come Home the Father, let Him forgive you restore your soul, your joy and bring His light back into your life!