‘Tis the Season
June 29 – July 2, 2003

The holidays are a special time of the year. It’s one of the busiest shopping season and 30% of yearly sales happen in the last four weeks of the year.

Toys and gadgets galore line the aisles in department stores. Children reveal their wishes to a man in a red suit.

Cash registers ring with vibrant cheer in the hopes that will cap another great year. Stores will be overflowing with those last-minute gift ideas. And there’s always someone you forgot to get a gift for.

Then Christmas day will come and all the gifts will be opened. The children will gleam over the gifts they got, and frown on those they didn’t want.

The tree and the trimmings will be put away and you’ll shop those after Christmas sales. You’ll always need wrapping paper, cards and other accessories.

Then you’ll think, "What is Christmas all about?" Is it the gifts, the parties (and all that weight), the making of merry? Why no! It is the joy that a baby born in Bethlehem came to set us free.

In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Scrooge thought of it as an inconvenience, an excuse to make merry. What he forgot to realize is that Christmas can be any day; a feeling of joy and love that last all year long. Even in the darkest moments, love is always there. His nephew Fred always inviting, but Scrooge was always refusing the invitation.

Scrooge always thought so highly of himself, yet failed to see others hate & despise him. It took the vision of three ghosts to show him that he was not beyond hope. That God offers us something worth more than earthly treasures.

In It’s A Wonderful Life, George Bailey measured his success by missing out on all the dreams he had as a young lad. Meanwhile, he watches all of his friends go places and do things. Yet, he is alone in Bedford Falls with the Bailey Building and Loan.

George realizes, in the end of the movie, that it is not money that makes you famous, but the family & friends that supported you. Maybe we just take everyone for granted and when they are gone, we miss them dearly.

Christmas is a time of hope and joy. Jesus came so that you and I can be free. Free from the bondage of sin and death; to be given a new life through His blood on the cross.

Christmas shouldn’t be heavy down with chores and extra duty. We should look at it as a fun and exciting time when we welcome a child who gave his life to free us from sin.