The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 12

On the twelfth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
    Twelve Drummers Drumming
    Eleven Pipers Piping
    Ten Lords a Leaping
    Nine Ladies Dancing
    Eight Maids a Milking
    Seven Swans a Swimming
    Six Geese a Laying
    Five Golden Rings
    Four Calling Birds
    Three French Hens
    Two Turtle Doves
    and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Twelve Drummers Drumming = The Twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles' Creed:
     1) I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
     2) I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
     3) He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
     4) He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
         He descended into hell.
     5) On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven,
         and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
     6) He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
     7) I believe in the Holy Spirit,
     8) the holy catholic Church,
     9) the communion of saints,
   10) the forgiveness of sins,
   11) the resurrection of the body,
   12) and life everlasting.

Maybe I'm a slow learner, but it took me several years to put the pieces of this faith journey together.  Since I didn't  grow up in the faith or the church, I was an a baby Christian as an adult. Sometimes people assumed I knew more, or "should have" known more than I did.  

As part of a "confessional" church, we declare this confession of faith each Sunday during the worship gathering.  Together we declare what we believe.  Sometimes it felt like a rote exercise...but I didn't fully understand.  One time someone said, "I'm so glad to be part of a confessional church where it's clear what we we believe"... and I began to appreciate these words differently.  

Many years into my journey, I learned that the origins of this confession are unknown, however the earliest known use dates back to the early church as candidates for baptism made their declaration of faith.  When I grasped the magnitude and envisioned people from every century, from every tribe and tongue, the educated and those still living in an oral culture, the young and the old...it was overwhelming!

Now when I make this confession, 

I imagine the body of Christ in its fullness, for all time!

On this 12th day of Christmas, I invite you to celebrate, along with the millions that have gone before us who served their course in faith - - together declaring this same confession that Jesus Christ is Lord - - creator, sustainer, redeemer, and the ultimate keeper of justice.  

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  JOHN 3:16-17

The Lord loves you dearly!