12/06/09

Today our pastor talked about Christmas in a way I had never thought of before. He shared with us four "H" words that describe Christmas then, two thousand years ago, and now.

HAPPY

Christmas is and was a happy time because the Savior had been born. There was happiness with Mary as she realized she was chosen to be His mother. What an honor! Holding that sweet baby for the first time... can you imagine how she would have felt? There was happiness on the hillside when the angels appeared to the shepherds to say the Messiah had been born. Each time the angels appeared to someone it was always prefaced with "FEAR NOT".... we should be happy!

Today we all can think of happy memories that we have shared with friends and family throughout the years. Some traditions continue year after year and always bring a sense of happiness when we think of them. We should be happy to share Christmas every day of the year because we are who we are today because of Christ coming and what He did for us!

HERALDING

The shepherds were so excited about the Messiah once they found out He had been born. They didn't just take the news and sit back down and watch the sheep... they went to find Him and then they went out telling others what they saw!

We should be spreading the Good News of Jesus. At this time of year people are singing about Him, but do they really KNOW Him? Is it like the empty boxes around a fake Christmas tree in the mall? Do they really realize WHO it is they are singing about? Oh that we may boldly share Who Christ is with our lips and our lives.

HARD

Christmas was hard on Mary and Joseph! They didn't have the ability to travel by train, plane, bus, etc.... Mary was 9 months pregnant and had to travel by foot and, most likely, by donkey! Could YOU imagine riding a donkey for that long, let alone that you were "great with child?" She didn't have a nice room in which to birth her precious Son. There was no room for them... therefore, He was born in a stable.

Christmas can be a hard time for us today, too. We can have financial difficulties, job losses, etc... One thing we can remember is that through all of those hard times, Jesus is there, just like He was some 2,000 years ago on that first Christmas. The world was in a bad way then just like it is now. There was turmoil politically and a lot of uncertainty. BUT, Jesus came in the middle of it all. He didn't come to take away power from Rome, but to save His people from their sins.

HORRIFIC
(I had never thought of this point before. The others I had thought of from time to time through the years.)

Once King Herod realized the Wise Men had not come back to him to tell him where the "King of the Jews" was living he became enraged and had all of the Jewish babies in that area from two years old and under to be killed.
What tragedy.... horror.... to know that just because your child was born at that time it had to die because of Herod's selfishness that no one should "take" his throne. A throne that wasn't rightly his to begin with! The Bible says that the women could not be comforted because their children "were not." Over thirty years later, Mary would indeed experience that same pain when her Son died a horrific death on the cross of Calvary for my sins. "Born to glorify the Father, born to wear the thorns for me...."

Even today we hear of horrific things that happen in the world. It may be the father we just heard of this past Friday in Raleigh who was critically injured in an automobile accident where a bus flipped on top of his car. It is uncertain as to whether or not he will live. Our pastor even spoke of the tsunami that happened in 2004 on Dec. 26.... thousands of lives lost in such a tragic event. There are so many others, but these are the times when we want to question "WHY, GOD?"

God understands our questions. We just have to keep remembering that God's thoughts are not our own. In the fullness of time God sent His Son when everything was "ready" for Him. That is no different today. In the fullness of time He may have something happen in our lives, not to cause us unmerited pain, but to draw us closer to Him. To bring us to that stable.... that manger..... and eventually to that cross on Calvary where we humbly receive the Savior.