December 11th, 2025
by Mark McAdow
by Mark McAdow
By Pastor Mark McAdow
Our new and improved parking lot was striped this week and is ready for use – to welcome our Willow View family and guests this Christmas season. Thanks to our Trustees and all who gave to make that possibility a reality – and right in time for Christmas 2025.
Our front doors also are painted with the Nativity scene reminding all who enter the church about the absolute true meaning of Christmas: Jesus! I’ve written our McAdow family Christmas letter, and I’m beginning to sign thank-you cards to all of you who made your giving commitments to Jesus through Willow View for 2026. Thanks for your faithfulness.
Are you ready for Christmas? Believe it or not, it’s just two weeks away! Does that excite you or stress you out? We just finished decorating our home yesterday and are yet to write a Christmas card. We’ve been to two Willow View Discipleship Community Christmas parties with another opportunity this Saturday and a Christmas dinner, too. Like you, we’re looking for a “silent night!” Here’s a quick story I read that reminds us of what Christmas is all about.
“In the book 364 Days With E. Stanley Jones, editor Mary Ruth Howes offers a powerful reminder as we move once again into the extraordinary season of God’s gift to humanity.
A little boy, a child of missionaries, was in school in the United States at Christmas time. The principal asked him, “What would you like most of all for Christmas?” The boy looked at the framed picture of his father, remembered acutely the absence of the father in a far-off land, and quietly said, “I want my father to step out of that frame.”
The boy voiced the cry of humanity: We want God, our creator, to step out of the frame of the universe, out of the impersonal relationship, to meet us personally. Jesus is God stepping out of the frame of the universe – God simplified and personalized. Christmas is the story, all over again, of the God who for our sakes becomes intimate, tender and redemptive. It’s God stepping out of the frame to remind humanity our God is up close and personal. It’s Emmanuel – God with us!”
That’s the joy of Christmas. Emmanuel! Jesus became one of us to rescue us from our sinful selves and be restored to a right relationship with him. God knew the only one who could do the job – Jesus. Jesus didn’t refuse the mission or try to send someone else or delay. He came himself! He “stepped out of the frame” and moved into the neighborhood. He came for you and me.
I'm looking forward to being with you this Sunday for our choir musical “Mary Did You Know?” at 9 a.m. I’ll be preaching at 11 a.m. wishing you a “Mary” Christmas.
Love you,
Pastor Mark
If you’re able, bring a dollar with you each Sunday to stuff our Salvation Army red kettle in the lobby for the less fortunate of Enid. Thanks!
Our new and improved parking lot was striped this week and is ready for use – to welcome our Willow View family and guests this Christmas season. Thanks to our Trustees and all who gave to make that possibility a reality – and right in time for Christmas 2025.
Our front doors also are painted with the Nativity scene reminding all who enter the church about the absolute true meaning of Christmas: Jesus! I’ve written our McAdow family Christmas letter, and I’m beginning to sign thank-you cards to all of you who made your giving commitments to Jesus through Willow View for 2026. Thanks for your faithfulness.
Are you ready for Christmas? Believe it or not, it’s just two weeks away! Does that excite you or stress you out? We just finished decorating our home yesterday and are yet to write a Christmas card. We’ve been to two Willow View Discipleship Community Christmas parties with another opportunity this Saturday and a Christmas dinner, too. Like you, we’re looking for a “silent night!” Here’s a quick story I read that reminds us of what Christmas is all about.
“In the book 364 Days With E. Stanley Jones, editor Mary Ruth Howes offers a powerful reminder as we move once again into the extraordinary season of God’s gift to humanity.
A little boy, a child of missionaries, was in school in the United States at Christmas time. The principal asked him, “What would you like most of all for Christmas?” The boy looked at the framed picture of his father, remembered acutely the absence of the father in a far-off land, and quietly said, “I want my father to step out of that frame.”
The boy voiced the cry of humanity: We want God, our creator, to step out of the frame of the universe, out of the impersonal relationship, to meet us personally. Jesus is God stepping out of the frame of the universe – God simplified and personalized. Christmas is the story, all over again, of the God who for our sakes becomes intimate, tender and redemptive. It’s God stepping out of the frame to remind humanity our God is up close and personal. It’s Emmanuel – God with us!”
That’s the joy of Christmas. Emmanuel! Jesus became one of us to rescue us from our sinful selves and be restored to a right relationship with him. God knew the only one who could do the job – Jesus. Jesus didn’t refuse the mission or try to send someone else or delay. He came himself! He “stepped out of the frame” and moved into the neighborhood. He came for you and me.
I'm looking forward to being with you this Sunday for our choir musical “Mary Did You Know?” at 9 a.m. I’ll be preaching at 11 a.m. wishing you a “Mary” Christmas.
Love you,
Pastor Mark
If you’re able, bring a dollar with you each Sunday to stuff our Salvation Army red kettle in the lobby for the less fortunate of Enid. Thanks!
Recent
Archive
2025
January
February
October
2024
February
March
May
July
August
October
2023
Categories
no categories
Tags
no tags
No Comments