The Love of Christmas

It’s the week between Christmas and New Years that seems the darkest of all. For most of the month of December is spent looking at our trees and driving around neighborhoods seeing all of the beautiful displays… And then Christmas has finally come and gone and the lights start coming down… The trees are taken out… And the streets seem a little more dim as winter sets in. It can often be compared to how we feel after the holiday of running around and being busy. We feel tired and drained… Needing a few days to recover from it all before we head back to work…

We can almost miss at times why we do it all… Why do we?… As Charlie Brown would say, “can someone tell me the true meaning of Christmas?” But instead of Linus sharing the gospel from Luke, we have other Scriptures that point us in the right direction to why Christmas is important. When Paul wrote to the church in Galatia, he set the record straight for why all the trimmings and lights matter…  Paul writes that when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:4-6).

When the right moment had come… As Paul says it was the fullness of time… God came and dwelt among us… Jesus Christ was born… To redeem us… For no other reason besides His great love for His creation. To adopt us into the family of God. To no longer live separated from God. It was this very love that was found at Christmas. That is available to us. A very profound song reads this way:
I met someone who touched my soul and made my world brand new. There's a part of me, a place inside that now belongs to you… The love we found, the love we found. We carry with us, so we're never quite alone… The love we found, the love we found. The sweetest dream that we have ever known. The love we found, the love we found.
It's in the singing of a street-corner choir. It's going home and getting warm by the fire. It's true, wherever you find love, It feels like Christmas. A cup of kindness that we share with another. A sweet reunion with a friend or a brother. In all the places you find love, it feels like Christmas (Muppet Christmas Carol)

The Christmas spirit can continue throughout the remainder of this year and into the next because it’s all around us. It’s in the love that we share. The love that we show and the great love that has been given to us. Even when the tree goes out and the lights are taken down. The love of God is still here and available to us. Wherever you find love… It will feel like Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all.