I hope we take the story seriously, both as it unfolded millennia ago and as it is unfolding around us today. This will bring love for one another to life, make faith have integrity in taking Jesus' story all the more seriously, and ensure that Christmas will be true in me and you.

If I want to welcome Jesus in another holiday celebration, I pray I will welcome him in every single neighbor in his shoes...especially my immigrant, refugee, and all neighbors struggling through needing resources like money and shelter (like Jesus' family long ago)…

As Christmas comes again, please remember the truth that we don't have Christianity without immigrants, refugees, and people who come from all kinds of places deemed "unsuitable" or a "threat" by people in power (see Herod's threat to Jesus' life and so many innocents)…

If I accept the status and journey of Jesus (the refugee, immigrant from a "dangerous" or "undesirable" homeland) who I find as an infant in the manger, then I also ought to accept the image of God in my immigrant and refugee neighbors regardless of their homeland…

Hope she faired ok during the stomach bug saga!

i’m not in the business of deciding who is and who is not a “real” christian. that’s above my paygrade. but “devout” implies a level of devotional rigor that pete hegseth has not even kind of demonstrated. christianity is a very broad religious tradition, but the book does have a few rules.