“Say among the nations, ‘The Lord is king!’

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice…

before the Lord, for he is coming.” (Psalm 96:10–13)

As Christmas draws near, these words from Psalm 96 echo in my heart. They are not quiet words. They are expansive words—words that invite the whole creation into joy, into praise, into expectation. They speak of a God with a big imagination: a God who is always coming, always creating, always renewing the world in love.

This is the God we celebrate at Christmas. The God who imagined salvation not through sheer power or brute force, but through a child born among us. The God whose imagination was big and bold enough to enter our broken world and yet small and quiet enough to fit in a manger.

As I reflect on this past year and look toward 2026, I give thanks for you—leaders and congregations living into our shared synod vision: connecting and equipping leaders and congregations for life-giving mission and ministry, so that together we may love like Jesus, heal like Jesus, and engage like Jesus—growing young, gaining strength, and going beyond death to life.

I want to invite you, this Christmas season, to imagine with God.

Imagine what God has already been doing through your congregation in 2025—relationships deepened, ministries sustained, new ideas sparked, faithful service offered quietly and boldly. Then imagine how God might expand your work and your visions in the coming year.

Dare we do this – even say this – in the midst of these anxious and uncertain times? But if not us - then who else? Who else but we the people who follow Jesus Christ, and who do so as ELCA Lutherans: centered in God’s love, and emboldened and empowered by God's grace to share that gracious life with all people?

How can we imagine otherwise? “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” [John 6:66]

Here is a simple framework for imagining together:

• This Christmas season: Where is joy already breaking in? How might you name it, celebrate it, and share it?
• As this new year begins: What is one ministry, relationship, or hope God may be inviting you to nurture more deeply?
• By mid-year 2026: How might God stretch you and your congregation to love, heal, or engage in a new or wider way?
• By the end of next year: What might “going from death to life” look like in your community?

Psalm 96 reminds us that all creation rejoices because the Lord is coming—not someday, but again and again, even now. God’s imagination for the church, and for the world, is always larger than our own. And yet, God chooses to work through us.

May this Christmas fill you with wonder. May the new year invite your boldest, most hope-filled imagining. And may you trust that the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ will do more than we can ask or imagine—through you, through your congregation, and through our life together as synod.

With deep gratitude and hope,

Merry Christmas and a blessed, joy-filled New Year.

In Christ’s peace,

+Bishop Christopher deForest

Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod, ELCA