From Generation to Generation: An Advent Storybook
an Introduction from Rev. Teresa Welborn
Traditions and songs of the Christmas season have been passed down to us throughout the generations. A grandmother spends time with her grandchildren and they bake cookies using her own grandmother’s cookie cutters. A newly married couple decorates their home for the holiday season by joining together the decorations they each bring from their childhood home. Parents prepare by keeping some of the traditions they grew up with while creating some new traditions of their own. A visitor joins a Sunday morning worship service and the hymns flood her heart with memories from Christmas Eve candlelight services past.
It is true that for many people the Christmas season is filled with joy and happy memories. It is also true that sometimes we consider our own family of origin or the state of the world and all we remember and experience is pain and brokenness. Whether your season is filled with joy or sorrow or a mixture of many different emotions, Christmas is God’s promise that hope is on the way. As John’s Gospel proclaims - a light shines in the darkness, and the darkness shall not overcome it! Jesus was born at a time of trouble and worry. His story is an invitation for us to discover how hope, love, joy and peace are born in the midst of our own moments of despair. Each year we tell the Christmas story as a reminder that you belong - to a story etched into the wrinkles of time, to generations that have come before and will come after, to a love that won’t let you go.
At University UMC, our Advent and Christmas sermon series is From Generation to Generation reminding us that our lives, histories, actions and stories are all interconnected and woven together. In these pages you will read stories from our church community. May the stories give rise to your own memories. May the words inspire you to consider the stories you long for your life to tell. And above all, may you know that your story is held within the great love story of Jesus’ birth.
What a joy to be your pastor!
Teresa
