Is it a coincindence that Epiphany and Christmas Eve as celebrated by some cultures fall at the same time, or is there a deeper connection between the two?

 I just posted my Christmas Eve message with a focus on God's unconditional love.  The message will be followed by a soloist singing "I Wonder as I Wander", accompanied by a violinist, and then communion.

My Message for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve Message, 2012

A young man had a dream.  In his dream he was holding a candle and he was surrounded by darkness.  Jesus lit his candle and sent him into the darkness.  After a little while, his candle went out and he had to go back to Jesus to light his candle.  This happened several times.  He started to apologize to Jesus for not keeping his candle lit.  Jesus said, "Please see that each time you were able to go a little farther into the darkness before your candle went out."

The author of this is "Anonymous", but I wish I had written it.  I value this as much as I hold it to be true, and am thankful it was sent to me:

Affirmations of Christmas

I BELIEVE that Christmas is more than a time for parties and ornaments; it is a time for remembering Christ and the incarnation of God's love in human flesh.

What's everyone's thoughts on the new book by Pope Benedict XVI? Is he biblically right about the accounts of the birth of Christ or is it an attack by satan?

Mark Andrew Alward is a writer who attends Grand River Unitarian Congregation in Kitchener, Ontario. He comes from an evangelical background and blogs at The Loving Room.

Here are his thoughts on Thanksgiving.

When the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would bear the Son of God, “For nothing will be impossible with God,” Mary answered, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

What an amazingly powerful response to God’s hope for the world. With Mary’s response, Christ was born and the world came to know God’s love in new form.

I have seen miracles. I have seen God act powerfully, mysteriously and miraculously. I pay special attention to miracles at Christmas.

In our United Church Song of Faith we sing of how “God tends the universe, mending the broken and reconciling the estranged.” We go on to sing of the initiative that God took in the birth of Jesus, to make this mending and reconciling visible in a new way.