Christmas

by

Pastor B.J. Knefley

It will be a Christmas morning at my house. Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be arriving later in the day. Not all of them, just a few that live close by but that will still mean a house full. I’m going to cook prime rib outside on the grill and my mouth is watering already.

Christmas is most often viewed as a joyous time. A time for family and friends to gather together. But for some it’s not joyous. In fact, I would venture a guess that all of us can look back and remember a Christmas or two that were not joyous. For some, Christmas has a new normal, one that they hadn’t anticipated or even considered would be their new experience. I like the saying that says, “Life happens while we’re making other plans”. It’s true isn’t it? Just in my own circle of friends and family there are some who are experiencing their first Christmas without their loved one. Another is in a place that they would have never predicted a year ago. A young mother is saying goodbye to her husband who heads back out to the oilfields to work on Christmas morning.

I don’t know how often we think about it, but Christmas is about Christ. I wonder how often we think about him beyond the holiday season? I read of a Pastor who said that we need to take Christ out of the manger and bring him into the rest of our lives each and every day. Why? Simply because the manger is only one side of the coin, the other side has a cross. And although we may not like it, life too has a cross. Sometimes it’s hard. We don’t get everything we want. Jesus said that he had come to give life, (John 10:10). Yet in the giving of life to us, it had a cost.

I don’t know what this new year will bring and neither do you. But what I do know is that I can choose to live like Jesus lived and I can love like Jesus loved. I may not do it perfectly, but I can try and when I fail, and I will, I can get back up and start again. The manger is about new beginnings. The year is full of hope, embrace it, it is yours to grasp, but it is a choice. Think about it.