A Christmas like no other in our lifetime

Concerts, Christmas programs, business Christmas office parties and in-person Christmas Eve services for the most part have been cancelled, zoomed or held in a manner that falls within the guidelines of the governor’s orders.

However, during this holiday week – between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day – many will find ways to celebrate.

Last weekend the Kasson-Mantorville Community Education Santa Parade gave families and most importantly, children the opportunity to experience by gathering along a route through Mantorville and Kasson to get a glimpse of Old St. Nick as he made the rounds atop a Kasson Fire Department truck. It was a creative alternative to the more customary opportunity to gather in downtown Kasson and visit businesses for crafts and prizes.

Churches have gotten creative. Some have announced they are having drive-through Christmas Eve Services and communion. A few will be holding in-person services with precautions. Others have decided to gather online. Still others, for whatever reason have closed their doors until the pandemic life of 2020 allows them to re-gather.

All of us have experienced directly or indirectly the wide-spread virus that originated in China.

Now, is the time to set aside the pain that has caused so many people in our area and look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus, the Messiah.

All of us are finding ways of creating a positive environment amid this most recent shutdown of many businesses. For example, many of you have blitzed outlets that sell fresh Christmas trees. In some cases, the trees were sold out in the first day of operation. That says a lot about our efforts to cling to a more traditional lifestyle at this time of year.

While hope seems to overtaking the darkness of the pandemic with the hope of a vaccine, we as a town, county and state must remember that hope showed up more than 2,000 years ago when God introduced himself to the world as a baby in a small hamlet in Israel. Our hope is in that child who became a man to bring us salvation through his sacrifice 33 years after his entry into our world.

CHRISTMAS

“Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Isaiah