That Christmas Feeling

That Christmas Feeling
It’s a sweet feeling.  The season of goodwill, love, neighbor caring for neighbor, decorations, music, family gatherings, special foods, and on and on.  There’s so much love in the air that you could almost forget the trouble in the world today and the assaults on all of the goodness that the gospel has brought to the world. Everyone seemed to love one another.
In our home, Christmas was the one time of year when we seemed to find a way to say what we couldn’t seem to say at any other time of the year.  We felt special . . . loved.  The modern Western trappings of Christmas added to the aura; trees, lights, presents under the tree, special food, friends and family gatherings. The whole city was decorated.  Then the Lord seemed to add His special ‘flocking’ to the whole scene.  It all went to create a feeling that was unmistakable.  A feeling that was unlike any other time of year.  Christmas.
I became a believer as an adult.  I soon realized that Christmas was actually about something else . . . something more.  It was about a gift all right.  Not just any gift, though, but the gift given by God so that we could become His.  For me, it was easy to carry on and think that our Christmas gift giving tradition was because of that gift and so it is.  It was easy to carry on all of the traditions that have grown around Christmas.  Who wants to give that up??  Especially if it was the one time of year when you felt loved, special.  What a feeling!
Now, all of this stuff is nice.  Yet, if you look out at America and at the world, many celebrate Christmas and all of the traditions and bask in the Christmas feeling without ever acknowledging the Giver of the gift.  I’m not suggesting that we trash all of the traditions and throw away the ‘feeling’.   However, I am suggesting that we need to reconnect with the real reason.  We need to connect with the Giver of the gift . . . His gift that He so graciously gave in order to express His love for us.  This gift was given so that we could have fellowship with Him.  There’s a good reason for a special feeling.
At the first Christmas, Christ came to us to begin the process that would lead to His death and resurrection.  That process opened the way (the only way) to the Father Himself.  Then, just before He left us, He said, ‘go tell the world’.  He didn’t come for just the few of us who now know Him, but He came so that we all could know the way to the Father.  He committed that message to us!
At Christmas, then, instead of just enjoying that Christmas feeling and keeping it all to ourselves, we should also be looking out on the whitened harvest field.  We should be considering, ‘how can I share this gift with others, with the world’?
Enjoy your Christmas with its traditions, gifts and expressions of love.  However, let’s not keep it all to ourselves.  Let’s consider how we can share that gift of the Father’s love with the world.  Begin by praying and asking Him what you can do to see that they all have a chance to know what you’ve known.  He wants them also to know the love of a Father who wants to spend with them a Christmas that’s full of that special Christmas feeling for all of eternity.  The message is in our hands.  Let’s share that special Christmas feeling with the world!