Christmas

We spend so much time hurrying to this point of the year. Halloween's decorations are mixed in with the Christmas trees. Thanksgiving is nearly forgotten. We must get to Black Friday. In fact, it's so important, they've now developed Dirty Thursday. Let's just skip the Thanksgiving stuff, they say, and move directly to Christmas. Do not pass Go, go directly to Saint Nick's day.

Then when it does come and the presents which were once beautifully wrapped and are now ripped open the returns have been made and it's on to Valentine's Day, we miss the full importance of the celebration. It's my opinion that we've forgotten what to celebrate. We know how to celebrate, we just don't know what to celebrate.

"I think you're making too much of this because we know that Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. Look it up. Shepherds are not in their fields in the winter!" And so it goes. In our drive to be completely right, we've lost site of what really happened on that day when Jesus truly was born. So it's important that we slow down a little bit (slow down a LOT of bit) and ruminate about the significance of the event. "God with us" He was called....Immanuel. "The Word became flesh and dwelled among us." Yes, I still believe His death, burial, and resurrection are the foremost things that we should remember, but He had to get here somehow. And God chose that somehow to be in the humblest setting possible. Not in a pristine castle, not in a sterile hospital, but in a barn with the aroma of manure and the bleating of sheep. The scent of hay and the drafty walls.

He didn't come to the elite. He came to the common. He didn't come so we could hustle through the holidays. He came so we would have peace. Prince of Peace He was called. What we do during this season of the year is anything but peace. So if you do anything this time of the year, take some time to enjoy the peace that comes with knowing that our Father sent His Son, His One and Only Son so that we could have peace.

Prince of Peace! control my will,
Bid this struggling heart be still'
Bid my fears and doubtings cease--
Hush my spirit into peace.

Savior at Thy feet I fall;
Thou my Life, my God, my All;
Let Thy happy servant be
One for evermore with Thee.