What Christmas Means to Me

This weekend in church as we sang Christmas carols and worshipped our Lord, I began to reflect on what Christmas really means to me.  I LOVE this time of year, I love the lights, the tree, the stockings, the gifts, the smell of scotch tape, the food, the fellowship, the merriment, the bell ringers at stores, the excitement of my kids, I love it all.  But most of all I love the fact that we are celebrating Jesus. 

"Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Oh come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!"  As we sang this at church my eyes filled with tears which spilled down my cheeks.  What a privilege, what an honor, how exciting to be able to celebrate and adore the Lord of lords!  To think about all the responsibility placed on that little baby all those years ago in Bethlehem is astounding.  To think about Mary and Joseph not really grasping fully what they were apart of but knowing it was special nonetheless.  To think that when He entered the world that day, the entire world changed, our world changed.  To know that even as a baby, a toddler, a sweet boy, a teenager, a young man, a man fulfilling His purpose, He was thinking about you and thinking about me; about our lives, our redemption, our healing, our forgiveness, our purpose, our eternity.  We never escaped His vision, He was and still is ever fixed on us.

I feel sometimes I am like Mary and Joseph; I know I am a part of something spectacular, I know it has changed my life, given me purpose, healed me in all areas, given me peace, provided me joy, made me who I am but I still am unable to fully grasp all He is really capable of doing in my life.  Perhaps we are all like that; we know He is awesome, we know He is loving beyond compare, we know He is beginning and ending of all things but then when think of our own lives, our finite minds cannot truly grasp the sheer magnitude of His goodness applied to our everyday situations.  But it is; He is an intimate, relationship driven, personable Lord.  He wants our fellowship and to sit on the throne of our hearts.  Is there room for Him there?   Or have we filled our hearts up with other occupants, crowding Him out to the outer stables of our hearts?  Is He around our lives but not really IN our lives. 

Everyday we are given the chance, the opportunity to allow Him entrance into our lives.  In Revelations 3:20 it says, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends."  It is our choice to have Him a part of our lives or not, He is knocking...we just have to let Him in.  This is Christmas to me, letting Him in!  Answering the door to Him, sitting down with Him and having a meal together, talking together over good food, laughing at funny stories, spending time together.  Doesn't that sound like a beautiful Christmas celebration to you?  It does to me; it sounds like what we all want our Christmas' to be like and Jesus is wanting that Christmas experience with us each and every day.  As we wrap presents, catch flights, drive to grandparent's houses, cook turkeys, bake hams, and put together toys, let's remember to always open the door of our hearts to the gentle knocking of Him who we are celebrating to begin with. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!