There Is a Jesus Christ

In 1897, the New York Sun received a letter from 8 year-old Virginia O'Hanlon asking if there really was a Santa Claus. Francis Church answered her question in a famous editorial that first appeared in the newspaper on September 21, 1897. I would like to adapt Virginia's question and Church's response and share it with you in this blog.
"Dear Preacher: I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say there is no Jesus. Please tell me the truth, is there really a Jesus Christ?"
"Dear Virginia,
As surely as there is you and me, there is Jesus Christ. Your friends do not believe in Jesus because they cannot see him. It is a small mind which chooses to believe only in that which it can see. For in this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him. Regardless of the amount of intelligence we have, it takes an open mind to grasp the whole of truth and knowledge that God has blessed mankind with.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Jesus Christ. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, for it is out of him from which they spring. Alas! How dark and meaningless life would be if there were no Jesus. Our existence here would be at best tolerable, our existence in the hereafter impossible.
Not believe in Jesus Christ! You might as well not believe in life, love, or in goodness. Some of the most real things in life are those that we cannot see, or define, or understand. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
No Jesus Christ! Thank God he lives and he will live forever! A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten thousand times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the hearts of children and adults alike."

My good friends, Christmas is not Christmas unless Christ is in it. May you have a blessed Christmas and a Christ-filled New Year. As you gather with family and friends, find ways to honor the Christ child whose birth we celebrate and the love of the God who sent him.