Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask you to stay close by me forever and love me I pray. Bless all the dear children in your tender care and take us to heaven to live with you there. Amen.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,... For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe (Ephesians 1:3-7, 15-19a)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: When I had studied these verses for a while, it was clear that the Lord is telling us two things by these inspired words. First, he tells us about what he has already done for us in planning and sending his Son to save us and bringing us to faith in our Savior. Second, God is telling about what he promises to do in the future so that he can carry us from where we are today to where he wants us to be tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and finally forever in heaven.

I remembered the words of a poem I read a long time ago--...I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep; and miles to go before I sleep. With the internet information highway it is not hard to find out these days the source of the little bits of trivia that float around in our minds. Many of you perhaps know what I relearned. The words are from a Robert Frost poem call Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. It goes like this: Whose woods these are I think I know / His house is in the village though / He will not see me stopping here / To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer / To stop without a farmhouse near / Between the woods and frozen lake /The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake / To ask if there is some mistake / The only other sound's the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep / But I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep / And miles to go before I sleep.

These woods-these Words of God to us today-are lovely, dark and deep. We would just like to linger here at Christmas time. It is a little break from the tough routine. And the spiritual loveliness of this season is beautiful to our hearts. We love singing these carols and going to a full church on Christmas Eve. Mary too took time to treasure that first Christmas and ponder the events. I am sure Joseph did as well. They probably wished they could freeze in time those hours of that night forever. Couples with ordinary babies wish that; how much more would Mary and Joseph since they knew who this baby was and what was happening-God had come to save sinners. I bet the shepherds too did not want the night that angels sang to them to ever end. Later, the wise men probably wished that the goal of their six-month trek from Iraq / Iran could linger a bit longer too before they had to start for home.

It is lovely here, right now, when you know the true meaning of Christmas. The Apostle tells us what was happening when Jesus was born. A great milestone in God's saving plan was unfolding. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Absolutely every good spiritual thing that God wants for people is wrapped up in this little baby. God had this plan in the works even before he created the world, even before Adam and Eve sinned and needed a Savior. So careful and deliberate were God's plans of love. He would leave nothing to chance but carefully, perfectly, carry out his plan so that sinners could enjoy his gift of life and salvation. He would make sinners "holy and blameless" in his sight through the "redemption" that comes by Jesus blood sacrifice. He would make sure that each person grasped that in the hands of faith and trust, planning to "adopt" us. He would send his love via the Holy Spirit working through the powerful Word and Sacraments to change us from unbelievers to believers, from people apart from his family to sons and daughters inside his family.

It truly is a lovely place, to sit here in view of Christmas, to think that we lack nothing in Christ, that if we die tonight we fly to our Savior's arms in heaven. Nothing more can be done or needs to be done. God has done it all for us. Planed to save us through Christ...sent Jesus to live, die, and rise for us...sent the Spirit to make us cling to Jesus for salvation.

But, the God who saved us has promises to keep that involve us. He has miles for us to go before we sleep. If he did not he would take us away in the sleep of death right now. Joseph and Mary had work to do so they could not just spend the rest of their lives frozen in the moment gazing at the Gift. Satan was on the prowl trying to stymie God's saving plan; so God said to them, "Get up and go; I have miles for you to go before I take you to the rest of heaven." They gladly went, and Jesus went with them all the way. The shepherds too had work to do. God wants others to know about the Savior so they went and told it to others. Later, they returned to their flock-watching; but Jesus went along with them. They returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had seen and heard. The wise men too went back. They went by a different route though. The saving Lord's guiding Word had replaced the Lord's guiding star. They would return to their normal work, but they were far from normal now that they saw the baby Jesus their Savior. They had worldly jobs, but they were not worldly people; they were brothers of Christ now. They had a whole new way of looking at things and a whole new purpose in life and reason for living-to honor their Savior and to share their Savior.

Today we hear the Apostle's prayer for us, that we would not just linger where we are but that the Lord who saved us would take us, carry us, prompt us, guide us, from here to where he would have us be. Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. God has miles for us to go. There is honor to be given to the Lord, and he's looking to us to do it. There are others that need to know about Jesus; and existing faith that needs strengthening and God asks us to be involved. God want us personally to increase in faith, hope and love. He must do it. As we could not make Jesus come for us or to our hearts, we cannot increase our faith, hope, and love. Sadly, we can frustrate the Lord's promise to take us miles from where we are. If we let sin slow us down...if we frustrate the Spirit by staying away from his Word, worship, and Communion...if we give hours and hours to the world and its things and only minutes to God and spiritual things. So let us begin this year as God would have us. Let us not just sit and ponder Christmas, but let us take it with us as God sends us out to live in his grace and to share his grace. And, let us return to his grace again and again for new strength to go the miles he has for us to go before we sleep.   Amen.