By Garrett Vickrey
Luke 2:11-14
On a side street just off of South Congress in Austin there is a mint green wall with a message written on it. Scrawled across the wall in cursive red spray paint are the simple words, “I love you so much”.
Every day hundreds of people come from all over to take their picture with those they love in front of this wall. They post pictures with kids, spouses, parents and “besties” on Facebook and Instagram. It’s so simple: words on a wall. But, these simple words remind us of something profound. Something as necessary to us as the food and drink found in every establishment on South Congress Avenue.
You are loved.
This is the simple message of Christmas. It’s obscured sometimes by the commitments and nostalgia of the season. It’s so simple we wonder why it’s a big deal.
Not only did God love you so much to send the Christ, but in doing this God doubles-down in committing to the world God made. It’s a reaffirmation of what God said in the beginning— “It is good”.
As we celebrate the infant Jesus being born to Mary, may we remember that the One born in suspicion at an inopportune moment with no place to rest his head is waiting to be born among us today.
As the words of the old carol proclaim:
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel
Or to put it simply: I love you so much.