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Monday, July 31, 2006
Always Christmas
Ephesians 2:4-10
We celebrated Christmas on July 30th. Not to be silly or just to get attention. But to launch our Vacation Bible School by starting at the very beginning of the gospel story. It was great to recapture Christmas joy and gratitude in the off-season -- especially after a 2-week heat wave that sorely tested both those graces.
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If every day was Christmas would it ever really be Christmas?
I mean, isn't the main point that one day stands out wonderfully above all others?
And so we have the holiday, complete with special gifts, foods, and gatherings to share them with special people. Try that for 365 days and you'll end up tired, fat, and probably unpleasant company.
But what if the spirit of Christmas became a part of your everyday life? Woven into each day's attitudes, words, and behaviors.
Christmas is all about gifts. Generous kindness that says, "I know you. I like you. I care enough about you to give you this much!" And out comes a present, absolutely free of charge, that's somehow just right for you.
Yeah, I know. Sox, a tie, some tinny trinket. It happens.
But generally a gift is chosen because it's something like you, something you will really like. Or realize that you wanted or needed, even if you had no clue before you got it.
The Bible says God loved the world so much that he gave us his Very Best -- Jesus! (See John 3:16, one of God's greatest hits.) He gave us Christ to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. To meet our deepest need. To give us what we really want more than anything else.
I'm convinced what we need and want most of all is to know that our lives mean something, that we exist for some good important reason.
What difference would it make to the world if we had never been born? What gap would be left wide open if we died today?
Jimmy Stewart found the answer some sixty years ago in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life." This year it's Adam Sandler's turn in the serious comedy called "Click." In between, on every single day, it's your turn and mine to learn the lesson. That's the spirit of Christmas. Every single day.
What if God really did love you and me like that? To give us in Jesus the embodiment of what God is like, and of what we could become like if only we'd let it happen. If we'd just open our hands and our hearts to accept that wonderful gift.
One answer is, we'd find a whole new freedom to look at each other as priceless gifts to be accepted, appreciated, and loved. And we'd look for every excuse to let each other know that's the way it is.
Imagine that. Like Christmas, any day of the year.
posted by Jack Buckley at
6:18 PM
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