Dear Editor:
Many in our country ask during this Christmas season, "How can I find true Christmas peace and contentment in a discontented world?" Many worry about what the future may hold in store. Will Social Security go bankrupt. "Will we lose all the financial gains we have worked for our entire lives? Will health problems burden us?" And some think that the future holds deep-rooted difficulties for America.
Many think that the America we have known in the past is gone forever. They question the continuance of our free institutions and visualize some of the darkest days this country has ever known. Loved ones from past holidays may not be here this year to share the holidays with us and loneliness drives some to hopeless despair. Some are so overwhelmed that they resort to suicide.
Despite what some scoffers say, Christianity is under assault but even that fact should not perplex Christians to a great degree. It is just prophecy being fulfilled right in front of our eyes. God told us that "Ye shall through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God."
The glory of the Christmas gospel tells us that with the Christ child to guide, strengthen and uphold us we can find that contentment in cruel days which may lie ahead, companionship in loneliness for Jesus is our dearest, eternal friend, sustaining power in every weakness, soul happiness even amid bodily pain, a serene faith even though surrounded y chaos in a world truly aflame.
Why do we worry so about the future when God has told us to take no thought for the morrow? God is well able to guide the affairs of men with His all-seeing eye and not even a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice. And Christ Himself promises us "My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you."
So the gist of the Christmas story is that if we cling with personal, trusting faith in Him, we can know that no matter how hard and hopeless life's course may seem, personally or for our country, in Bethlehem's manger we learn that this little baby is Heaven's light for dispelling darkness, brightening our pathways, no matter how rough and rocky and finally leading us to celestial glory where sorrow and tears shall be no more.