I love Christmas and I loved it as a kid! I remember waiting and looking at our tree and any presents we might have under that tree for what seemed like an eternity. But Christmas would come and just be there for a fleeting minute in our year and then be gone. I would love to open presents but I wouldn’t take them back to my room for days. Because as soon as we were done with all the present exchange stuff, I would carefully place my new treasures back under the tree so that every time I came by the living room, I would see what folks had generously given to me. And I would do that for days, so that part of Christmas would last even into the new year or until my Mom insisted that I take them back to my bedroom. I thought about that along with the Christmas account in the gospel of Luke. Mary, Jesus’ mother, had been visited by the angel Gabriel according to the Bible. But there is nothing written about those nine long months that she waited. It ended up with travel from home to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus. Then the rowdy shepherds coming and telling what they had seen and heard out in their field that night, of light and sound and armies of angels. And at the end of all this it says that “Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often”. It seems like after the presents are opened and guests are gone and the decorations are carefully stored away…so is the glory and majesty and meaning of Christmas. I liked that I wanted to keep Christmas alive in my childish way…and I want to keep it alive now as a follower of that Jesus born in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. I want to keep the wonder and grandeur of Christmas alive each and every day. I want to remember that God so loved all of us that he sent his only son with the purpose that whoever might believe in him, his message and his death and resurrection…should not perish but have eternal life. Take what moved your heart this Christmas and keep it there and like Mary, think about the wonderful thing that God has done and the gift he has given. And then choose to live each day like it was Christmas, filled with the joy and wonder and love that touches our lives
from that time so long ago. I bet if you and I do, we’ll be happier and more dialed into the God of the Bible and it just might rub off on the people we run into each and every day of the coming year. And remember, Merry Christmas…because it will be back before you know it! Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Luke 2:15-19 NLT When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” (16) They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. (17) After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. (18) All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, (19) but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.
Remember I’m praying for you…
PJ
from that time so long ago. I bet if you and I do, we’ll be happier and more dialed into the God of the Bible and it just might rub off on the people we run into each and every day of the coming year. And remember, Merry Christmas…because it will be back before you know it! Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Luke 2:15-19 NLT When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” (16) They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. (17) After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. (18) All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, (19) but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.
Remember I’m praying for you…
PJ