On a quiet Christmas Morning I sit here quietly in my office and reflect on what the last several weeks have meant to me and particularly to the people I care about. I understand the battle that rages within the Christmas story for the hearts and minds of humanity. We are immersed in a world that distracts, detaches and deflects the hearts of the people longing to find God.
At Christmas, its as if God is standing on the main stage of our lives shouting loudly "Here I am, stop looking, I've come to you!" Yet when you hear of people trampling others just to get the lastest Michael Jordan sneaker for $180 a pair so they can be the coolest, most self-conscious person in town, you know that God's message is getting drowned out, and the search continues. The Prodigal Son has not yet turned toward home.
Each year we continue to proclaim the truth that all the stuff under the tree will someday rust and pass away, but the Child nailed to the tree and his message will never pass away and someday we must all face that truth whether we like it or not. And so the Christmas story is told and retold in the hope that it will some day take root. We are scattering seeds...
"So, if a Christian is touched only once a year, the touching is still worth it, and maybe on some given Christmas, some final quiet morning, the touch will take." Harry Reasoner
“[Jesus] left because of you. He laid his security down with his hammer. ... Since he could bear your sins more easily than he could bear the thought of your hopelessness, he chose to leave. It wasn't easy. Leaving the carpentry shop never has been.” -- Max Lucado
“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! " Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas ... perhaps ... means a little bit more!" And what happened then ... in Who-ville they say [is] that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!” -- Dr. Suess
On this quiet Christmas Morning, I wish you, the world, a Merry Christmas in the hope and prayer that some day, this day, it will take.
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