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In a Christmas greeting, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olay Fykse Tveit reflected on how the birth of Jesus is described as the Creator’s care for the world.

“We have come into being in him,” says Tveit. "This is the scriptural affirmation of God’s love for the world, for the whole world.”

Jesus is the life and the light of all and for all, Tveit continues. "The Christmas message helps us to see all things and everyone that God has created as expressions of God’s will and God’s love,” he says. “The Holy Family is a sign of the whole human family, surrounded by animals and everything God created through the Word.”

The light and life of the world that we celebrate at Christmas are even more needed in a world threatened by lack of care for the earth, Tveit says. "The Christmas message is for everybody and about everybody,” he says. “The incarnation—that God is becoming flesh, human, and part of the created world—is the awesome mystery of Christmas. This mystery directs our attention to how God loves not only humans but the whole of creation to which we as humans belong.”

Tveit concludes: “For the future of our world, the meaning of Christmas is a message for all of us: Christ’s love moves us to take care of God’s creation.”

Christmas 2019, A greeting from the World Council of Churches (Also available in GermanFrench and Spanish, Arabic (pdf) and Norwegian (pdf))

WCC Christmas video

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