Merry, Merry, Merry, Christmas Love!
By Pastor Jerry
After engaging in brief conversations this season with friends, I most often heard the departing words – “Merry Christmas!” It was usually said with enthusiasm and expressed with a genuine felling of hope for me and my family. And I repeated and returned the joyful phrase to them with the same hopeful response.
But, with mixed feelings I ponder this goodhearted gesture as I question, “Will Christmas be a merry experience?”
And I have personal support as to why I should carry this concern. I looked into the faces of shoppers dodging the crowded isles, watched people frantically searching to cross off all the names on their shopping list, and wondered how serious is the cringing that I saw as the red figures are recorded in their checkbook. Those looks alone give me more than enough reason to question. But certainly there is more than that.
Christmas has become a time of joy mixed with stress pressing on the nerves and the pocketbooks.
And just think! Christmas time is imagined to be a happy time, but when it is not, we are left all the more disappointed. We begin to question, “What’s wrong with me?” Or, we ask, “Where did I miss the point of Christmas?” It’s not because you didn’t try hard, nor is it, because you were not “in the spirit” of it all. It is really more because the merry part is other than our efforts and our activities.
Being merry at Christmas is more than just being ready with all our neatly wrapped presents.
Perhaps, that is the downfall. Maybe it is not in the presents at all. Rather, our lack of true merriment at Christmas is because our focus is in the wrong kind of present! Let me explain what I mean. O.K.! First, what is your idea of the best present you could possibly receive at Christmas? Now, before you answer, think on this: How do you measure the value of a present? How do you judge its worth? By its size? By its weight? By its cost?
Could it be that the merry in Christmas gets missed because we are looking for it in the wrong kind of present?
I truly think that is the answer. The greatest present is not something you can wrap up and put a bow on and then place it under a tree. However, it is a gift that you can receive.And although it is not something you can buy, yet, it is a gift that is priceless. Do you already know what I’m talking about? Have you guessed? It is the gift of love! It is the love of God in the gift of His Son, Jesus, the Christ.
God’s love is the gift to the world at Christmas that makes the heart merry!
“This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. 1 John 4:9-11 (MSG)
God showed His love for us at Christmas long ago and new each and ever day!
Does God’s love change you? Does it affect your behavior? Does it affect the way you treat people? You see that is what love is intended to do. It changes us into loving compassionate people who care for the needs of those who are around us. God wants to love the world – but He has a desire to do it through you. Let God show His love through you. It is the best Christmas present ever! It is Jesus Christ and His love of you! This is why I sincerely wish you a “Merry Christmas!”
Friend, I wish you merry, merry, merry, Christmas Love!
What do you think? I want to hear from you about what Merry Christmas Love looks like to you!
If you have missed the Advent Series: “All I Want for Christmas”, then check it out.
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