Just as much as November is a month of thankfulness December is a month to be joyful, to remember God's great gifts and take joy in our everyday, crazy lives! So often it's easy to be stressed out as you're trying to get things ready for Christmas, wrap presents, clean up that guest room and make sure you have all the cooking done! But Christmas isn't about the stress or the busyness or the holiday parties that go along with this time of year. It's about being thankful for the greatest gift any of us have ever received. Jesus Christ's willing sacrifice on the cross for our sins but before Jesus' resurrection could happen on Easter Sunday Jesus had to die on the cross on Good Friday but years before that came Christmas...
A young woman and her young husband. Have you ever read the Christmas story? Have you heard about how there was no room at the inn for this pregnant young lady who was about to give birth to the child of God? Have you ever read about the angel's who appeared to declare Jesus' birth on earth? The shepherds who received that message? Or the wise men who traveled from the East to see the baby Jesus? The king, Herod, who wanted to kill the baby? The people in the temple who rejoiced at His birth or the earthly parents Jesus was entrusted to who were given such a huge responsibility or raising this child. And through it all there was God, His hand can be seen in this whole story just as His hand can be seen in our lives.
So check it out. In your Bible you can read the Christmas story in Matthew 1:18- 2:23 and Luke 1:5- 2:40.
But although Jesus Christ's birth is the reason we celebrate many of us choose to have that celebration with family and we have traditions and memories that are some of the many reasons we're joyful.
I'm joyful this week for my family. They've always been there for me and I know I will always have their love because they love me with the love of Christ. My family is one of the most important things in my life and I have many, many memories of them that coincide with the Christmas season, over the next few weeks I'll share some of those memories, traditions, songs and favorites things that make me love Christmas time and I hope you'll do the same by leaving your memories, traditions, etc. in the comments below.
I grew up in the Northwestern United States and if you don't know much about our weather we don't get a whole lot of snow this far west. But one year I was in Elementary school and we got probably three or four inches of snow, maybe a little more. Too many people that wouldn't be much but to us it was cause for celebration. My parents had some cross country skis in our garage and my siblings and I pulled out those skis that none of us knew how to use and we "skied" all over our property that year. I don't think any of us ever really got the hang of it and we probably spent more time pushing each other on the skis then we actually did skiing but we had so much fun playing in "all that" snow! It was a Christmas I'll never forget.
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