Ahhh Christmas Time. Did the days really pass that quickly or did I simply not pay attention? At any rate, it is here.
For some, Christmas is the season of joyful Christmas songs, wonderful foods, and precious memories, evoked by misty nights and cool crisp evening air, fire logs crackling in the background, and the fragrant aromas of Christmas cookies and desserts in preparation for holiday parties and fun.
For some, Christmas means a deep plunge into the frenzied pace of shopping, because it is the shopping season. Actually, shopping does speak of Christmas, because giving was God’s idea. John 3:16 tells us,
“For God so loved the world that He GAVE His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (NKJV)
For Christians, Christmas means all of this and more. While some may pontificate against paganism and the desecration of holiness by everything from fig pudding to trees and Santa Claus, I instead choose to take a joyful approach. Christmas is a time of sharing and loving, and of hearts more open to hear about Jesus. With joy, I heartily sing the songs of the season and tell people of the babe born in the manger who grew to be the man who bore your sins and mine. I joyfully tell the illuminating story of man’s sinfulness but God’s great goodness. God looked on your life and mine and knew that without HELP we had no HOPE. And that HELP is JESUS. God loves you and me so much that He sent His son into the Inn of our hearts to free us from sin. WHAT A FANTASTIC REASON TO CELEBRATE! (By the way, celebrating is what God does BEST. At His Sons’ birth, God sent a myriad of angels and a glorious heavenly choir to sing songs of joy as God proclaimed the Good News to shepherds in a field at night. Kind of makes a new dad giving away cigars look a bit pale, doesn’t it!)
As Christians, instead of proclaiming a tirade against the commercialism of the season, why don’t we look around and see something deeper. Let’s look for eyes moistened with tears that spring from hearts softened each year at this time with hope for pleasant things--like family, love, and a God who is involved in the lives of people?
This season, take time to share His good news with others. In these days of fearfulness over events in Iraq and terrorism, let’s fill hearts with joy, with love, with quickness to prayer, with blessing, with thanks for friendship and family, and with the love of Jesus Christ in demonstrated action. Then, truly, we can help make certain that the Christmas Bells really WILL be ringing.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM DOOR OF GRACE MINISTRIES