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Holidaze

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The Holidays are upon us.  With cautious excitement I head out into the world looking for the joy that has surely come.  I step into a store where everyone is smiling, okay, not everyone in the store, just everyone in the displays perched above the nicely arranged merchandise.  I spot the chocolate Advent Calendars right next to a newly released book entitled “How to Rid Yourself of Sugar and Find Happiness”. I am a little confused.  I was not looking for happiness, I was just looking for the Advent calenders. Now I am in a quandary, do I want the Advent Calendars or do I want the book, I did not know I had to give up chocolate to find happiness.

 

Thus begin the holi-daze.  The confusion over what Christmas (and life) is all about.  I do not think God is for or against chocolate, though if I had to pick I would say He is for it.  I do think He is against us making Christmas, and life, about us rather than about Him. There is only one glory that stands unopposed and will shine time without end.  It is not the glory found in a great tasting piece of chocolate and it is not the glory found in the “new you” and the self control you can exhibit. The chocolate won’t last, and neither will your beach body.  What will last, is what we are supposed to be celebrating at Christmas, the birth of a Saviour who came to save us from our sins and from ourselves.

 

With the world clamouring for my attention on how to better myself, I tend to forget that it is myself that I need saving from.  I forget that neither good chocolate or greatly adhered to self improvement programs can atone for the entitlement, jealousy, and pride I can harbor in my heart.  I forget that for His kingdom to come closer this Christmas ( a welcome alternative to the brokenness here) my kingdom must go. He came to save me, all of me; to be Lord of my life, all of it.        

 

Christmas is indeed about Christ, the giving of God’s Son, sent to die as a sacrifice for our sins, and then to rise again.  In conquering death for Himself, He also conquered death for us. Is that not monumental? One would think it would be easy to keep this thought central, but we will be tempted by advertisements and sentiments to the contrary.  There will be parties where instead of talking about the Christ child whom we are allegedly celebrating, we will talk about ourselves. There will be dreams shared, not about the glory He came to make possible for us in all eternity, but of the here and now, which is actually not much more than a vapor.  Perhaps part of the holidays is catching up. That is okay. Catching up is different than measuring up, and certainly different than getting so caught up you forget to celebrate the thing that brings you (or could bring you) together, the hope of Christ. 

 

May the good news of the Christ child soften hearts this Christmas.  May He be allowed entrance into new hearts, and allowed greater reign over hearts He lives in.  The best Christmas will not be the one we create, but the One He does. May the words of the angels ring true-

 

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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!  

Luke 2:14 (ESV)

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