Monday, December 26, 2016

Merry Christmas!


'Tis the day after Christmas and with every fiber of our being we are trying to be still. What?!  Be still? Yes, be still.  The quietness of a fresh morning brimming with hope for the newness of the day. I don't know about your household, but in ours it's rare to take a couple of days to simply be quiet. Especially around Christmastime.  I know some of you are already thinking, "who has time for that?!", "must be nice", or "why in the world would you want to be still when there's so much to do?", "what do you do when you sit and do nothing?!"  Hahaha, well... I'm certain the answers to all these are different for each of us. For me, it is my favorite time to think about how Jesus came to be. And, why He came to be. Christmas, after all, is the day we celebrate His birthday.  Talk about a Christmas miracle!  The historical account of this is found throughout the bible, however, the most familiar account is in the second chapter of Luke. Most familiar, believe it or not, is from the Charlie Brown Christmas special from 1965. Charlie Brown was depressed over the commercialism that Christmas had become, and so Linus comforts him and explains to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about.  Here it is as told by Linus from Luke 2: 
"8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  10And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men."   
"...That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
It never fails, reading this always leaves me with a smile on my face, and filled with great hope! 
"Oh! May the God of all hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!" (taken from Romans 15:13, The Message)
Merry Christmas!


Kim and Katy 


Christmas fun in our neighborhood

No comments:

Post a Comment