It’s that schizophrenic time of year again. It is a season filled with peace and good will but also frantic rushing about.Phrases like, “Will I ever get all the preparation finished?” are standard, as we race toward the holiday season.
Each of us will look to Christmas with emotion of one sort or another. If we have young children or grandchildren, our excitement will be a reflection of theirs. If it is our tradition to gather with family, we will look forward to the event with either expectation or, in some cases, with rejoicing that it only happens once a year.
The folks who deliver the daily or weekly papers know when the holiday season is upon us, and it weighs heavily upon them physically. These are the days of the ten-pound newspaper, only a few ounces of which are actual news.
It is a sure sign that our emphasis has changed with the passage of time.
As you and I prepare for Christmas, I pray that you will take time to think about how the celebration got started. Christmas is intended as the festival to observe the birth of Jesus Christ. His coming was foretold more than seven hundred years before it happened. God told of His plan to grant forgiveness of sins thousands of years prior to that.
Christ brought peace, and hope, and love to the world. Those who call themselves His followers have laboured, over the centuries, to bring the good news to all who will listen.
There are groups celebrating other events at this time of year. Some are secular. Other people relate to a different religious practice. There are people who revel in the fact that they celebrate nothing.
Whether or not we choose to recognize and honour Christmas, the fact remains that God took that one moment in time to let us know of His love and His plan for the salvation of humankind. Those who believe have additional cause to celebrate, and the joy goes on all year.
My prayer for you is that you will be so blessed by the truth of Christmas that you can have the quiet joy apart from all the material things that happen during this season.
A Joyous Christmas to All
He gave the right to become God's children to everyone who believed in him. – John 1:12 (GW)
Robert Scott is a pastor and the the author of ADVERTISING MURDER, LOST YOUTH and MURDER EXPRESS, titles in the Jack Elton Mystery series, Published by AVALON Books, New York
