🙌It's the Friday Call to Worship!🙌

It seems like modern society is more sensitive to accessibility than ever before. Smartphones come with features to support visual and hearing impairments. There are laws for structures and hiring to give every person an opportunity to access life in the fullest way possible.

We make decisions in our family to help our autistic son maintain access himself and important relationships. Even Christmas is accommodated so he can stay fully-engaged and our other children can enjoy him, each other and the reason for the holiday throughout the entire day. There's a lot of prayer, planning and strategizing involved! As I've carefully thought through the details of Christmas, I've started to think maybe we aren't the first ones to consider accessibility after all.

More than 2,000 Christmases ago, the Holy Land was pulsing with expectation and a kind of pressure I've never known. God's children had been calling for their Savior from oppression, darkness and depravity. Finally, the world received the most unconventional, unexpected gift: a teenage birth in a stable. It was hard to see then, but we can see now...

Christmas is Christ made accessible to all. The shepherds wouldn't miss it in the fields. The nations got the message through a new star in the sky. Best of all, this was the very beginning of God giving every person unbroken access to Him.

There is still oppression, darkness and depravity. But, "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent." (2 Peter 3:9) He has come. He is coming. He doesn't want anyone to miss Him.

The WHOLE world can access to Jesus. We are charged to make Him accessible to all. Take His joy to the world!

Listen to "Joy/Joy to the World" by The Belonging Co.