Jen Gaunce – January 2026

Hi Sweet Friends,

We had the Christmas story and Christmas songs in our thoughts, ears, and hearts for months. And lest we forget, we had commercials and Walmart ads reminding us we better hurry because we don’t want to miss out on a great deal. We want to make all of our loved ones happy, don’t we? We don’t want to fail at Christmas, the biggest day of the year. And I am in lockstep with all of it. I love giving gifts. If I hear something is in short supply, I’ll buy four of them, just in case I meet someone who needs one. I love most of it, and then at times I stop and wonder how we got so off the main point, the reason we celebrate at all. I see non-Christians singing the beloved old carols in their glitter outfits and wonder if they have any idea what they’re saying. What does it mean to them? What does it mean to me? How did and does the birth of the Son of God change the world? What does God value? Let’s think about it.

Have you ever wondered why God chose to reveal the greatest news ever heard to shepherds first? To say something like, “It’s the fullness of time. I see you. I’ve always seen you. Come see what you’re worth to me. You get to go first.” Shepherds were often considered the underbelly of society. Theirs was a lonely, dangerous job. They smelled bad. Who would have considered them to be honored and chosen, except their Father who “sees in secret” and wanted to lavish them with a peek behind the curtain and to show them their salvation in human skin, like theirs?

Instead of making a big splash when baby Jesus was presented in the temple for circumcision, God revealed that this baby was the great promise fulfilled to an elderly praying widow named Anna and an old man named Simeon who had waited faithfully his whole life to see the salvation of the Lord. They were not the movers and shakers. They were just humbly believing, serving, and doing the next thing.

And why did Jesus use fishermen and blue-collar workers to launch His ministry? Talk about smelling bad. They certainly weren’t the social influencers. They weren’t the educated scholars or the community leaders. There was no reason for people to be drawn to them. And yet, I am a believer today because such as these believed, agreed with God, and passed down the good news of what we are worth to Him. This is on whom God built His church.

When Jesus was the hottest ticket in town and children were being turned away from seeing Him, Jesus said something like, “Oh no! Let them come. I love them. You should all come like children; believing, joyful, curious, honest, in need.” The children weren’t rejected for being childish, sticky, loud, with no social etiquette. Jesus just invited them to come as they were. He showed the children their worth to Him by welcoming them when others pushed them away. I wonder what He said to them. I wonder how it affected them the rest of their lives. I hope we get to find out.

And why was it women that Jesus chose to show His resurrected body to first? In a society and time when women were treated more like property and not cherished, Jesus loved them, spent time with them, listened to them, and showed them their value to Him. He let them love Him in the beautiful, sacrificial ways that were meaningful to them. His time, expression, words, and notice told them that they were worth dying for.

There are so many beautiful examples in scripture that reveal the bigger story of God coming for us. Humanity was hopeless and helpless; and God in so many ways revealed, “I will never stop coming after you.” Two of my favorite stories were told by Jesus in Luke 15. I love the story of the shepherd leaving everything to find the one sheep that was lost to bring it home. And the story of the prodigal son who left his father, blew through his inheritance in addiction to self, and found himself homeless and living with pigs. When he realizes he will die like he is, he chooses humility and goes home to beg his father for food and shelter. He has prepared a speech of repentance and has no expectation of restoration. He will beg to live as a servant. Before the son even gets home, his father sees him coming down the road and runs to greet him, welcomes him home, and gives him all that is rightfully his as a son. I learned in a study that although we call the story “The Prodigal Son,” in Hebrew it is called “The Running Father.” Isn’t that the best? It so rightly takes the focus off of the sinner and puts in on the savior. The father is the hero in the story, not the son. God always runs toward humility. To me, this is one of the most beautiful portrayals of Jesus’ coming. Christmas is the Father running toward us saying, “I will never stop coming after you. I came to bring you home.”

So to answer the question about why the outcast, the lowly, the poor, the children, the women, the beaten down, the hopeless, those with absolutely nothing to offer; it’s simply that. We have nothing to offer. These are ones that Jesus died for and God chose to build His Kingdom on. He doesn’t need anything from us, but He desperately loves us and invites us into relationship and family with Him completely based on what He does for us, not the other way around.

I have seen Isaiah 58 fulfilled in our own lives and church when God tells Israel what His heart loves and how He reveals Himself through us. It says that God’s people say that they want to know Him and are even fasting and going through the motions of worship, all the while living for themselves. He tells them that true worship that shows the heart of God and puts light on Him and not us is to share your food with the hungry, provide the homeless shelter, clothe the naked, take care of your family, stop fighting, seek justice, and help set the oppressed free from the chains that bind them. Verse 8 says, “Then your light will break forth like the dawn,” and “your light will rise in the darkness,” and “you will be a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” I’ve seen miracles. I’ve watched God bless the faithfulness of a few people and turn it into a light that shines in dark places and a well-watered garden for the feeding and provision of many. And I thank God for choosing the small, the weak, and the lowly                   (1 Corinthians 1:29) as a backdrop to reveal His glorious rescue story. If you want to find Jesus, go low. Value what He values. Love who He loves. And when the enemy tries to tell you that there is something you can do, must do, to finally fill that longing in your soul, please remember that Jesus is the only possible fulfillment of that longing. It’s why He came. Everything else falls short. C.S. Lewis said, “Look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else.” And God said in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” And if you are struggling with that reality, don’t worry. Just ask. God is faithful. He loves you as you are and is committed to the transformation of your mind and heart. And He loves you enough to never stop coming after you.