Jesus is the reason for the season!

Gratitude has many faces. Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider, spiritual head of the New Apostolic Church, looks back with thankfulness over the year that is about to end: “With hearts filled with emotion, and in deep gratitude, we look back upon the impressive events that have taken place this year. For many of our members—especially for those who took part in a youth or children’s gathering—the year 2019 will remain deeply engraved in our hearts. God has performed many miracles upon us—deeds that surpass our comprehension! Through the Holy Spirit, He has comforted His children in dramatic circumstances, and has created deep peace in many situations of need.

And he goes on to say, “We are only aware of a portion of the good things that God has done for us in this past year. For example, we do not know how often He has protected us from harm. And who can say how often Jesus has interceded on our behalf before the Father?”

Just say thanks!

To say thank-you for something of which we are unaware, something we cannot eve assess, is not so easy. This means no less than to give thanks for the incarnation of the Son of God in this world, even though we do not even understand what or who God really is! How can I give thanks for the love of God for mankind when I lack any specific experiences for this? Christmas as a feast of the incarnation of God will remain a mystery that the human spirit cannot fathom.

And yet, faith helps us to accept precisely that which God grants us: He gives Himself to us! He gives us His love, His nearness, and His kindness! “[Give] thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5: 20).

Thanking and thinking belong together

Thanking comes from “thinking”. And in order to be thankful from the heart, human beings need to think about all the things God has already granted them. For one thing, there are immeasurably valuable gifts such as peace, health, and good days. Even in times of need and affliction, we can feel His nearness. He warms our hearts. We give thanks for all that which we have, and thereby also bring to expression that we can only partially acquire all of these things by ourselves—there are many things we receive without even working for them.

God has bestowed an abundance of gifts on us—that is how far a human being must think ahead. Concerning this, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider said the following in one of his divine services: “How can we imagine that God expects a human being who has experienced such a dramatic situation to be thankful? We feel like saying: “But that’s nonsense! It doesn’t work at all!” And yet, the Chief Apostle went on to say, there is still good reason for gratitude: we can be thankful for the creation, for the good gifts that come from above, for the incarnation of Jesus Christ, for the congregation, and for the brother and sister at our side—not to mention God’s patience with us.

Today, on Christmas Eve, it is worth taking some time to reflect—and to give thanks for that which our congregation gives us:

• Thank-you, dear sister and dear brother, for your fellowship!
• Thank-you, dear children, for your liveliness and your confidence!
• Thank-you, dear young people, for working along in the congregation with so much joy!
• Thank-you, dear Priest for the time and the pastoral care you give us!
• Thank-you, dear Apostle, for taking your mission so seriously!
• Thank-you, dear musicians, for engaging your gifts and talents so wonderfully—and as volunteers too!

Thanks: today we begin Christmas—the feast of feasts, the feast of love. We not only remember the Child in the manger. We await Jesus Christ, our Saviour, each and every day—and we want to be with Him in eternal fellowship.

From the Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople: “…And [we believe] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (aeons). Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the virgin Mary, and was made man; He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; from thence He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.”