Christmas arriving just in time

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your King is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Zechariah 9:9 

​And so it begins. Well actually it began several weeks ago, but I thought it would be a catchy way to start the column. Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas sales, Christmas commercials and worst of all, Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel, Christmas is everywhere.  We have been surrounded by Christmas for several weeks now. Some craft stores have had their Christmas supplies out since July! There are several homes on the roads that I drive that have had their trees up for several weeks.  Many stores are having special Christmas sales every Friday in November and I know of one that is having a special sale each day this month. Every year I roll my eyes, utter under my breath and at times say it our loud, “it is not time for Christmas!” What about the Fall Festivals, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving? Are we skipping over these important days and events?

Then recently as I was awake still lying in bed one morning and I began to think, maybe with the year that we have had, we could use some extra Christmas spirit this year. Maybe it is exactly what we need. 

No, the sales and most of the decorations have nothing to do with the true meaning of the season, but what if we went ahead and grabbed a handful of Christmas joy? Please don’t misunderstand or don’t get me wrong, I am not saying lets skip over Thanksgiving and head straight to Christmas. That first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims were grateful to God for seeing them through a tough year. The odds were against them, but God provided and saw them through it. Sound familiar? We need to especially this year be thankful to God for seeing us through 2020. This year has that proved to us, if anything can go wrong, it probably will. Thank our Lord and Savior for His many blessings and His goodness. Thank Him for His provisions and His love. But, let’s also sing with excitement about the coming of the Savior of the world. Let’s embrace the great joy that Jesus offers to each of us. His first coming brought that great joy to the world. “And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Matthew 2:10. “And the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all people.” Luke 2:10. That first Christmas was filled with the excitement of the fact that the Savoir of the world had come. They were overjoyed that God loved them enough to send His only begotten Son. The shepherd’s hearts were exploding with excitement that Jesus was here. The sky was filled with angels singing to the glory of God. Let’s recapture some of that same joy and excitement right here and right now. Let’s begin to spread that Good News that there is hope in the midst of the worst of times. Yes that even includes 2020. Let God’s love fill your heart. Go ahead and get in the Christmas spirit, and spread some Christmas cheer.