Wake Up! It's Christmas!

Wake up! It's Christmas! Time for cooking, hustle, bustle, run, run, run some more, sit in Santa's lap, make up the wish list, shop til you drop, listen to Christmas music so you can gain some Christmas spirit, hopefully by osmosis, and the list goes on, and on, and on. So many people say, I wish we could just sit still and enjoy the true meaning of the season. You know the corny old saying "Jesus is the Reason for the Season"...people love to quote it over and over and over ad nauseum. I wonder how many truly understand what the means...a friend posted it on her facebook page today...a friend that I know understands it. But I wonder how many folks really think about what it means. Most feel like it's such a happy time. It's time of year we celebrate the birth of the Christ child that was sent to rescue us...that was sent to save us from our earned eternal destiny of Hell. What rejoicing we do over the birth of Jesus! We celebrate it with Happy Birthday Jesus songs and parties...we celebrate by giving each other gifts to commemorate the ultimate gift of Salvation that our loving Father provided for us...we celebrate by spending time with loved ones...and so on, and so on. But there are times, when I read the story in Luke 2...when I meditate on the true gravity of what God did on that cold winter night (did you know Israel, specifically Jerusalem and it's surrounding areas are on the same longitude as North Carolina?? It is! They have very similar weather to ours...). He sent a precious baby into this world...ultimately to die. That was the very reason that sweet, innocent, sinless babe was brought into this world...to die. For me. For you. For us all. I think about Mary...what love she must have had for this baby...and I am thankful God's plan wasn't revealed to her. What pain she would have gone through those years He walked this earth, knowing He was destined to die such a horrid, painful, excruciating death. I think about my daily walk. The ways I fail Him...no, I try to dwell on my shortcomings, I just try to do better. But when I think of the ways I've failed Him, I think of the cross...and I think of His birth...

It's such a simple plan, the plan of salvation. Many and most of my friends and family know God as a personal Savior. I can't speak to their daily walk or their current relationship with Him, that's between them and God. But what about you. Do you know Him? Does your family know Him? Do your colleagues know Him? Do you have an urgency for their soul? Do you have an urgency for your own soul? Why are we not telling people about Jesus...His birth...and His necessary death? It's so simple...

A lot of people think sitting in a pew or growing up in a church and being a good person are enough. Until you have a true, honest relationship with God, that's all pointless. Why don't we tell people this??

Christmas is so many things to me...it's tradition...it's cooking...it's running until my shoes fall off...it's joyous, it's beautiful, it's a happy time...it's also a time for me to reflect, to reflect on why it was all done and why it was necessary...and it helps remind me to do my best and love Him the way He wants me to...