Hey CNN! Over Here!!

CNN is all-a-twitter, wondering what the new Pope will say in his first Christmas Eve mass.  The Pope is a popular guy.  Over 80% of Roman Catholics and over 70% of everyone else surveyed say that they like him.

This Pope drives a little, older model car.  Not a limo.

This Pope was caught leaving his little apartment to spend some time in a homeless shelter.  He also sent some immigrants postage stamps and phone cards so they can contact their families back home.

I loved it when he allowed a precocious little boy to wander around his pulpit while he was preaching.  And, it was very moving when he singled out a disfigured man in a very large crowd, offering him a special blessing.

All of that is very likeable and draws the attention of the TV cameras and world media.  I’m very glad that a preacher is being portrayed in a positive light, for once.

Here is the deal, though.  We have preachers and church folk in the Potomac Highlands District who are doing things like that all the time:

·       We have churches where precocious kids roam the sanctuary, sometimes their parents are there, too, many times not.  But, these kids are being loved.

·       We have churches feeding senior citizens, kids who don’t come to church at all, and anyone else needing some assistance.

·       We have pastors who could be making a lot more money (some were) but they have heard a call to offer the hope found in Christ and they find their riches in a lost soul found, a lonely soul loved, and when the “least of these” are greatly valued.

·       In the Potomac Highlands District there are youth who are finding protection and direction; college students who are challenged to invest in the lives of others; and, prisoners who are learning that God offers them freedom.

·       In the Potomac Highlands we have folks investing themselves in faraway lands where God is saying to society’s throw-away-people, “I have a future for you.  I love you.”

·       Etc.

·       Etc.

·       Etc.

I don’t think CNN is going to come running with cameras turned on.  But, tonight, the heavens have taken notice and they are rejoicing because Christ is being formed in you (Galatians 4:19) and through you, a good work is being done.

Oh, and the DS notices, too.  THANK YOU!  Merry Christmas.