12-13-25

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
December 13, 2025
There are a number of strange things about me, and I’m pretty sure my spouse could add to the list. One of the oddities that is Bruce Frogge is looking for patterns in numbers. I’m not great at games like Sudoku, but I will see a list of random numbers and I find myself thinking about how one number multiplied by the next number equals the third number minus the following number. Today is 12/13/25, and the simple pattern of 12+13=25 catches my attention, but for some reason, I can remember as a kid reaching the 13th day of December and thinking of it as a turning point in the journey to Christmas. The next twelve days are not the Twelve Days of Christmas. Those are the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany, but at least as we countdown the number of days until December 25, the numbers are now getting smaller. I know that doesn’t sound all that interesting or insightful, but I do believe children are playing all kinds of countdown games as their expectations grow. Yet today, as I work on my sermons for Christmas Eve, I realize how much the game-playing had me looking another day down the road instead of living in the moment. Advent challenges us to be fully present and recognize how the journey is just as important as the destination, for as Jesus taught, the choices we make along the journey will determine the destination.

I wish to know the hope, peace, joy, and love that is the Christ Child, so I seek your assistance, Incarnate Word, as I seek to embody and employ the attributes of the Christ Child on my way to embracing the Christ Child. Amen.