How much can change in just a week?! We moved from the calmness of thankfulness to the frenzy of making it through Christmas, to surviving yet another crazy four weeks. Some of us were glad we got the Christmas lights up before the cold weather hit; others of us are climbing ladders in the cold this week trying to get those all-important lights up on the roof, reminiscent of Chevy Chase in the Christmas movie, Christmas Vacation, which is a classic to watch each year. Then there are the Christmas cards to get ordered online. We can no longer send plain cards. No, we need to send photo cards with 3-4 photos on them. It’s hard enough finding one picture that’s good of everyone, now we need to find 2-3 more!
Then come
all the activities and parties! There
are a myriad of church activities and wonderful concerts, plus the children’s
Christmas services and the Advent Workshop.
Couple that with all the family get-togethers and all the holiday
traditions, like going to the Guthrie to see A Christmas Carol, or going to the Nutcracker or going to the sing-along Messiah concert, and it’s easy to see why we are all stressed
out. Whew! Just thinking about everything makes me
exhausted!
The question
that kept popping into my mind this week, as I made my way to Target amid the
sea of crazy shoppers, was this thought:
What about Jesus? Now, I know we
need to get all the right toys and things our kids want for Christmas, but have
we become so driven by cultural and societal pressure that we need to top each
Christmas past? Do we go to more and
more parties, more open houses, sing-a-longs, plays, concerts, and
business/corporate events for our jobs, that we kind of push Jesus to the side
more and more?
On Sunday,
we begin the first week of the Advent season, which is a season of preparation,
the preparation for the birth of the King of Kings, our Emmanuel – God with
us. While all the Christmas activities
are wonderful, there is nothing as wonderful as the gift that God gave to us on
that first Christmas more than 2,000 years ago.
And, that gift, the gift of Jesus the Christ, is a gift that will never
need to be returned, it always fits and it lasts longer than Aunt Martha’s
fruit cake! As we all enjoy the parties
and fun Christmas activities in our lives over the next few weeks, may we never
forget the real reason to celebrate!
"Where are
you, Christmas?" That’s the theme of this
year’s Calvary Christmas Concert, which is this Sunday at 3 and 6 p.m. What a great question to ask ourselves every
day during Advent! Let’s keep our eye on
the best present under the tree this Christmas – Jesus the Christ. And, the best thing is – we don’t have to
fight the crowds to find it and it is totally FREE to those who wish to receive
it. Wow!
Now that’s the REAL gift of Christmas!
May Christmas
fill your heart with His love in a new way as we journey to the manger.
Advent
blessings,
Pastor
Carol
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