This afternoon will be very difficult. We always go on Christmas Day to Shelley’s parents’ home. Today will be the first Christmas without one of Shelley’s parents in that home. God called Shelley’s mom, Sue, home to heaven earlier this year.

Many of you know what this feels like. You remember decorating the tree with your dad. You recall baking cookies with your mom. You reminisce about making Christmas candies with your siblings. But now dad is gone. Your mom is in the nursing home. Your siblings have moved away.

On a cold Christmas Eve in the year 1818, a young priest named Joseph Mohr quickly walked from his home in the small town in Oberndorf, Austria to the neighboring village of Amsdorf. He was carrying a piece of paper – a poem he had written two years earlier.

He made his way to the schoolhouse, walked up the stairs and knocked on the door of the second floor apartment. He was greeted by his friend, Franz Gruber, the schoolmaster in Amsdorf and also the church organist.

What do you do when your child runs into a busy street? Do you ignore it? Do you hope that she’ll be OK? Of course not! When you see your child run into that busy street, you yell to her. You give her very stern and direct instructions on how to get back to you safely. You call her back because you love her.

What do you do when you notice that your neighbor’s house is on fire at 2 am? Do you ignore it? Do you let the house burn down because you don’t want to be rude and wake up your neighbor? Of course not! When you see your neighbor’s house burning, you shout, you bang on his door, you call 911. You do whatever you can to save his life.

One of my favorite TV shows is “Forged in Fire” on the History Channel. It is a competition series where four bladesmiths compete to create various kinds of knives that will hold up to the brutal tests of the show’s experts. The experts will try to chop deer antlers or bamboo stalks with their weapons to check edge retention. Then they will slice through a pig hide or cut through rope to check if their blades are still sharp.

The mantra of any real estate agent is “Location, location, location.” This is the number one rule in real estate. Homes increase or decrease in value based on location. You can change the structure of the house, remodel or alter the home’s layout, but what makes a home the most desirable is its location. Is it in a top school district? Is it close to a lake or a park? Is there is scenic view or entertainment and shopping nearby?

Pilate was an official of imperial Rome. Jesus stood before him as an accused traitor. The Jews claimed he was a king trying to usurp the power of Caesar. Pilate had a responsibility to question Jesus and assess whether or not He was truly a threat to the Roman empire. If Jesus was a king leading a rebellion, the Romans would oppose Him and His followers with the force of Roman legions. The empire was built on Roman military power, and Romans did not tolerate opposition to their power. But Pilate’s interview revealed that Jesus was not a threat. As a matter of fact, Pilate would conclude, “I find no basis for a charge against him” (Jn 18:38).

Still, Pilate was afraid to release Jesus for fear that the Jews would create problems with Caesar. Then, Pilate would be assigned an even worse place to govern than Israel. Pilate became downright terrified when he learned that Jesus claimed not only to be a king, but also the Son of God (John 19:8). To appease the Jews, Pilate issued the order for this king of the Jews to be crucified.

Norman Vincent Peale once said, “In comparison with the Great Depression of the 1930s, the recent recessions are like Sunday school picnics.” During the Great Depression, many people went hungry. Others stood in long lines for soup kitchens. Someone with a light touch said, “We occasionally see signs: ‘Keep off the grass.’ In the Depression they read, ‘Don't eat the grass.’”

The multitudes who came to Jesus in the uninhabited area in John 6 were told to sit down, for “there was plenty of grass in that place” (John 6:10). But the hungry people didn’t have to eat the grass; Jesus had real food in mind for them. He satisfied the hunger of all by miraculously multiplying five barley loaves and two small fish. He increased a young boy’s lunch to be lunches thousands of men, women and children.

A small band has left the church and are now gathered at the cemetery. They are gathered together to lay to rest the body of their dear brother in Christ.

They understand what this place is. It is a quiet place. It is a solemn place. It is the place where so many of their Christian brothers and sisters have been buried. The grandfather who died in his sleep. The mother who lost her battle with breast cancer. The teenager whose car careened into the ditch in an ice storm. The premature infant who died in her mother’s arms.

This is a place of grief. A place of heartache. A place of mourning.

Have you purchased your Vivos underground shelter yet? Vivos is a company that builds and sells fortified underground shelters that are said to “withstand virtually everything.”

You never know when your existence will be threatened by an earthquake, tsunami, nuclear fallout, a terrorist EMP attack, asteroid strikes, widespread anarchy, or a pandemic that turns the infected into zombies or wipes out humanity to make the earth a planet of the apes. While the earth is going insane, you can live in safety and security for up to a year in your fully-stocked underground shelter.

It is always good to know a few Latin phrases that you can use to season your conversations.

“Carpe diem” = “Seize the day.” Use this phrase when you’ve been diagnosed with a terminal disease. You aren’t going to waste time meaninglessly, so you seize the day.

“Veni, vidi, vici” = “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Use this phrase when you are facing any huge obstacle – cancer, an athletic event, or that huge pile of laundry in your son’s bedroom.

“Semper ubi sub ubi.” My high school Latin teacher taught me this three decades ago. It was good advice then. It is good advice now. “Always wear underwear.”