Bird River Bible Blog

Merry Christmas everyone! I love this time of year. Out at the camp, the snow’s been around for awhile, but the Christmas lights sparkle beautifully on the snow. It’s wonderful to tromp into the dining hall for a hot cup of tea after my walk from the office. When I’m in the city, I love the holiday music that’s playing everywhere and the decorations hanging in the malls. Some of my favorite decorations are the ones that depict the nativity scene: you know, the one with the stable, Jesus in a manger, surrounded by Mary, Joseph, and the wise men bringing gifts to Jesus.
If you’re not familiar with this story, let me give you a quick recap. You probably remember hearing at camp that after God created man, man disobeyed God, causing the whole world to end up living in sin. And then, God sent His only Son Jesus, who never sinned, to die on the cross for us, taking all the punishment for our sins! Well all throughout the Old Testament (the first half of the Bible), many of the writers talk about Jesus before He was even born. Some of the writers of the Old Testament actually talk in detail about the coming of Jesus Christ and about His death. One of these writers was Isaiah. In Isaiah 7:14 he writes,
“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”. This is later repeated in Matthew 1:23 and then Matthew adds that Immanuel means, “God with us.” So Jesus was born to a virgin, Mary, in a stable, where horses, donkeys, and cows lived. He was born to a young woman and a carpenter and laid in a manger, where the animals ate.
This is always an amazing story for me to reflect upon every year, that the God of the Universe, who created us, would send His only Son to live among us, to be with us. And that He came to live among us in a very real sense. Jesus wasn’t born in a rich palace among a thousand servants, but literally made himself nothing (“taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Philippians 2:7). He continued His life here on earth, known as the man who dined with sinners and hung out with a ragtag team that included fishermen and a tax collector. Not only did Jesus start out His life in poverty but He continued to live in that poverty His entire life. I love being able to go before God, who has experienced our pain, suffering, joy, and happiness: God really understands us. I like how Saint Clare of Assisi said it:

“Christ chose to appear despised, needy, and poor in this world, so that people who were in utter poverty might become rich in Him by possessing the kingdom of heaven. Rejoice and be glad.”

Take hold of the kingdom of heaven this Christmas, rejoice in a God who really knows, understands, and is here with us: Immanuel.

Hi everyone, from rainy BC! Angelle here and I’m on holidays in BC right now. Thanks if you’ve been checking this blog regularly and I’m sorry that it’s taking me awhile to post. I had some devotions ready to post here on my laptop, but it’s not working properly right now, so it might take another week or two before I post another devotional. Anyway while I’m on here, I might as well give you some updates about what’s been happening around the camp. Since the last update, someone donated a hot tub and it’s been installed in the deck of the dining hall! The deck has been extended around the kitchen part of the dining hall and it looks beautiful! The extension to the kitchen is going really well I think. Drywall was put up a few weeks ago, so now there are walls and that is exciting as it’s been very cold in there since they first started building the extension: it’ll be much warmer now. Chuck and Devon have been working really hard on the brochures for next summer’s camp. We have a theme that I’m really excited about! But you’ll have to wait until the brochures come out to find out what it is! I think they will be ready in January. The camp is pretty quiet for awhile as far as I know. Chuck and J-L, Dan and Ronnie are still there and they’ll be there over the Christmas season. Anyway, hopefully I’ll be able to access the devotions for the upcoming few weeks and be able to post them before Christmas. ‘Til then! Have a better day!