There are many who are enkindled with dreamy devotion, and when they hear of the poverty of Christ, they are almost angry with the citizens of Bethlehem. They denounce their blindness and ingratitude, and think, if they had been there, they would have shown the Lord and his mother a more kindly service and would not have permitted them to be treated so miserably. But they do not look by their side to see how many of their fellow humans need their help, and which they ignore in their misery. Who is there upon earth that has no poor, miserable, sick, erring ones around him? Why does he not exercise his love to those? Why does he not do to them as Christ has done to him? — Martin Luther
Sometimes our emotions are aroused by things we’ve read from centuries long past. Sometimes just last week. “I would have done that differently,” we tell ourselves.
Yet in present moments, we walk past those in need without a thought or acknowledgement.
Indeed, why do we not do to them as Jesus has done for us?
The irony of these words lies in Luther himself, who at one and the same time discovered God’s grace and sparked a revolution causing hundreds of years of bitter wars throughout Europe. Vestiges exist to this day in the religious divisions of American Christianity.
Celebrating, as we do at this time of year, the coming of Jesus and the kingdom of heaven, perhaps we could begin looking by our side to heal the divisions and the wounds. Beginning one person at a time.
Faith Venture 
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