We’ve decided to celebrate Christmas a little differently this year with our little ones. Christmas is, after all, Jesus’s birthday and our celebrations should reflect truth more than culture, so this is the year we will start a new family tradition. Since our married children have their own families, we’ve settled on the morning of Christmas Eve for our birthday party for Jesus. What it will be is still under construction, and each year as the grandchildren grow, our celebration will grow and change with them. The possibilities are endless and that’s just one more reason for this Lolly to get excited!
Without Christ, there would be no Christmas. There would be no reason to commercialize December 25th each year. No one would bring a live tree inside the house and have to worry with cleaning its needles from the carpets for an entire year. The Griswolds wouldn’t shut down the power grid with brightly colored string lights and the most magical thing about the North Pole would be aurora borealis, the northern lights.
All the hype began with the greatest gift ever given: Jesus. Yet somehow this season of giving inspired by God’s extraordinary gift has morphed into its polar opposite. No wonder the holidays feel empty for so many people today. We’ve essentially edited out the main character of the Christmas story. We’ve allowed ourselves to become distracted, like Martha, with all the preparations that have to be made. (Luke 10:40) Where are you getting your ideas and information about Christmas? Who’s setting the standard for your family celebrations?
I’ll take the book over the movie every time. The book is always better than the movie because no matter how well cast or true to the story a film gets, it will never match the mind’s eye of each unique individual on earth. When we read, we engage with the story and its characters. We see them as they relate to our own lives. We are spellbound. The best stories evoke a response. Experiencing God through His Word, the Bible, should be this type of immersive experience.
“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says.
Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.
You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.”
James 1:22-25 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.1.22-25.NLT
“For the word of God is alive and powerful.
It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.
It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”
Hebrews 4:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.4.12.NLT
God’s Word, the Holy Bible, is complete and perfect as it is written. When each believer, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, interacts regularly with the living Word of God, wonderful things happen. Faith comes by hearing the good news and faith grows by sharing the good news. Christmas is one of those incredible times of the year when eyes and ears are trained on churches and Christians.
“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him?
And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?
And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?”
Romans 10:14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.10.14.NLT
“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.”
Romans 10:9-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.10.9-10.NLT
Go tell it on the mountain,
over the hills, and ev’rywhere;
go, tell it on the mountain
that Jesus Christ is born.
(John Wesley Work, Jr. 1909)
There’s room for a whole lot more Jesus this year!
A Fitting Reply 