Christmas For All

In just under three weeks, Christians (and non-Christians for that matter) will gather to celebrate Christmas. We will smile a bit bigger, sing a bit louder, and dig more deeply to act friendly with everyone. 'Tis the season.

Most people, it appears, find the resolve to put joy-zapping thoughts and issues aside, if ever so briefly, to enjoy the spirit of Christmas. Christmas, after all, is the celebration of the birth (coming) of the Messiah, Jesus. It is also a time when friends and family gather in numbers great and small to continue traditions, laugh, catch up on the latest whatever, eat too much, and share stories. In a prophetic psalm, Solomon, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "saw" into the future and wrote about Jesus. He wrote in part . . .

---

Psalm 72:15-19 (NIV)
Long may he live!
    May gold from Sheba be given him.
May people ever pray for him
    and bless him all day long.
May grain abound throughout the land;
    on the tops of the hills may it sway.
May the crops flourish like Lebanon
    and thrive like the grass of the field.
May his name endure forever;
    may it continue as long as the sun.
Then all nations will be blessed through him,
    and they will call him blessed.
Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel,
    who alone does marvelous deeds.
Praise be to his glorious name forever;
    may the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and Amen.

I encourage you to focus on two phrases from those verses.

• "all nations"
  
• "the whole earth"
  

Those words tell us that while Jesus arrived to fulfill the promise first given to the Jewish people, the promise is more far reaching. As Paul reminds his New Testament readers again and again, Jesus came for Jew and Gentile (non-Jew) alike, male and female, ALL who could come to Him.

It would be outstanding if everyone who celebrated Christmas did, as the saying goes, keep Christ in Christmas. But I don't sweat the fact that some (many) do not. Because even those who just celebrate gifts, family, and food are getting a taste of the real thing. I pray that taste will whet an appetite that will crave more than laughs and full bellies. That they would come to see Jesus as the real gift. That they would taste and see that God is good. In the meantime, show love to all and celebrate Christmas with joy.

#ordinarylives