Joseph DiMeo was involved in a horrific car accident when he was 19 years old. He fell asleep at the wheel and flipped his vehicle. Thankfully, someone pulled him from the burning car before it exploded. But Joseph still suffered severe burns over 80% of his body. He spent 3 months in a medically induced coma while physicians worked on him.

Even after countless skin grafts, Joseph was left disfigured and unable to use his hands. But the amazing doctors at the NYU Langone Health were able to do something that is just completely wild.

Maybe you remember the not-so-good days of sitting in the back of the family station wagon with your siblings. Three kids trapped without air conditioning in a hot back seat with only two roll-down windows. That meant one of the children was a human sacrifice – condemned to the hated, middle seat.

The misery was high and the tempers were short. Any type of jostling, bumping or touching began the backseat battle. “You hit me!” “Did not!” “Did so! You touched me!” “Not on purpose!” “You’d better get back to your side!” “I can’t go back to my side! I don’t have a side! I got a middle!”

“Then get back to the middle!” That last remark was emphasized was emphasized by the giving of a small, slight shove. That first shove led to a more forceful counter-shove.

You know how those backseat battles all ended. The same statements were made by every one of our fathers. It’s like when they became fathers, these phrases became embedded in their DNA.

It was around this time three years ago when I was sitting with my daughter, Miriam, at our island in the kitchen. We were looking back and forth from my laptop to her Chromebook. We had all kinds of tabs open as we researched different universities, their educational programs, if they offered ROTC on campus, and, if there was a WELS church or WELS campus ministry at that university.

My sister, Dawn, happened to be recruiting in our area. Dawn went to Michigan Tech in the U.P. on a basketball scholarship and received her teaching degree. But she hasn’t taught a single minute in a regular classroom. All of her teaching is on the basketball court. She is a Division 1 basketball coach at South Dakota University. When Dawn walked into the house and saw us working on college stuff, she said, “Miriam, it doesn’t matter what you get your degree in. You’re going to end up doing something completely different.”

I scolded her, “Dawn, she doesn’t need to hear that right now.”

“Can anything good come from Racine?” That was the question people were asking me over 16 years ago while I was in Kentucky holding the call to Epiphany.

I had no idea where Racine was or what it was like. People who lived elsewhere in Wisconsin told me all kinds of negative stories about Racine. I was specifically instructed to make sure I knew which church in Racine I was being called to. They said one church was in a good neighborhood. The other church was in a bit rougher neighborhood.

God is referring to his Son and servant Jesus when he refers to him as Israel in our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah, “You are my servant Israel, in whom I will display my glory” (Isaiah 49:3). Jesus will display God’s glory to the nations.

We hear a lot about God’s glory throughout the Old Testament. “High above all the nations is the Lord. His glory towers above the heavens” (Psalms 113:4). “Then they will sing about the ways of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord is great” (Psalm 138:5). “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Bring a gift and come into his courtyards” (Psalm 96:8).

As a child, I would get Atari 2600 games and Legos for Christmas. My two sisters would get things like Barbies and clothes. My dad would get tools. He would get quarts of oil for his tractors, crescent wrenches, screwdrivers and hammers. I always thought, “Wow! That’s so boring!”

Decades later, when I started adulting, I enjoyed receiving tools for Christmas. Tools are just toys … with more power!

This year I received a Milwaukee cordless drill and bits. I love it!

Tools are useful presents. A crescent wrench for fixing plumbing. A Dremel for woodcarving. A voltage tester for replacing wiring.

Growing up, my cousins and I would give our Christmas lists to our Grandma. We each put different toys and games on our list. But then our moms must have added underwear to all our lists. There aren’t any kids who actually ask for underwear.

Except, that’s precisely what everyone of us got one year for Christmas.

I still distinctly remember the disappointment I felt as a child one Christmas. I was with my family at my grandparents’ home on Christmas Eve. We were exchanging gifts. One of my uncles and aunts had my name. I excitedly opened the present. It was a little Hot Wheels truck. Now, Hot Wheels were always cooler than Matchbox, but I was still disappointed. I don’t know what I wanted that year for Christmas, but I guess I didn’t want a Hot Wheels pickup truck.

This past year has been a big disappointment, hasn’t it? So many events have been canceled. So much civil unrest. So much lost time in the classroom. So much loneliness, sniping, accusations and mistrust.

Since David was made king, God has blessed him with victories over ancient enemies like the Jebusites and Philistines. Now David is in the unique situation where there is peace and quiet around him. We’re told, “It happened that when the king was living in his palace, and when the Lord had given him rest from his enemies” (2 Samuel 7:1).

As David relaxed in his beautiful, brand new palace, something struck him as being terribly wrong. It didn’t seem right that he was resting comfortably in a palace fit for a king while the ark of the covenant of the King of heaven and earth was stuck in the tabernacle.

Jesse is the head shepherd, overseeing the flocks of sheep in the pastures outside Bethlehem. His father, Amos, is out in the fields this night. Jesse’s younger brothers are with them. Jesse’s oldest son, Malachi, has finished his homework and has joined his dad in the fields for a few hours to learn the family business.

The angels have left the Bethlehem skies. The shepherds’ hearts have stopped pounding. They have been able to herd the sheep together after they ran away when the glory of the Lord appeared over them.