Merry Christmas and Happy Holy-days to all my neighbors who celebrate during these holy times!

In my Christian tradition, Christmas is an opportunity to hear an old story. A writer named Luke shares that “Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” We don’t get any more detail than that. What happens between the lines is often filled by our
imaginations and traditions.

I often wonder how this story would play out today. What happens if we humbly ask ourselves what we would do if we were in a similar position as the person working at the inn? Would YOU have welcomed the family into YOUR home? If I told you that a woman knocking at your door was about to give birth to the savior of the world, would you open your house and provide anything that was needed for the baby and parents to be
comfortable?

What if a teenage, pregnant girl showed up? No ring on her finger. She’d taken a long journey; she looked and smelled disheveled. The guy with her had a story about not being the real father, but they were still gonna get married. Someday. She has nowhere else to go.

Would you open up your home?

Here in the Forest Lake area and Washington County, there is a growing amount of people who are in search of home. When I watch the news, I see a growing crisis of homelessness locally and nationally.

As a community, we continue to seek ways to provide shelter and protection for some of the most vulnerable people in our midst.
In 2018, the Hugo Family Shelter opened as a temporary place for families to stay while the staff at the Community Resource Center at St. Andrew’s worked with parents to find a permanent settlement.
To date, they have housed 22 families, which includes 28 adults and 39 kids. Many of the local churches and organizations have volunteered to serve meals and stay overnight as a resource.

This winter, St. Andrew's Lutheran Church Community Resource Center in Mahtomedi and Trinity Lutheran Church in Stillwater will rotate as hosts for a daytime warming space or overnight shelter when temperatures fall below negative ten.

At Faith Lutheran, we are discerning what it means to be a loving neighbor—even to our homeless neighbors.

I took a step out of my comfort zone and visited a homeless community through an organization called Walking with a Purpose to deliver supplies.
What I discovered surprised me. The people I met were resourceful—many of them entrepreneurial. They were kind and compassionate. They were grateful for a cup of hot chocolate. They had hope.

But they lacked home.

This story of the birth of Jesus gets me every year. Somehow, the story of a child born without a home, is a gift. Not the kind of present you find under the tree. It’s a gift of God’s love that I GET to share with my neighbors. I get to give out God’s grace to a world that is hope-filled. My hope is that we, collectively, can make a difference and open our doors to help.