Day 2863 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

John 1:5 NIV

Christmas Day. The one day a year that our world, or at least some in it, set aside to celebrate the arrival of a tiny promise that would grow into an eternal salvation. It's a time when we slow down and reflect upon all we've been given, all we have to rejoice over, all we have to look forward to in the days ahead. Yes, Christmas is in many ways the best time of the year because it's the most different time of the year. And though not always popular or widely agreed upon, different can often be among the greatest of gifts.

Ironically, most view this day here toward the end of December as a day of getting more. It's a season of exchanging gifts, unwrapping packages, and finding room for all the new excess unto which we've been bestowed. In recent years this holiday has become a rather commercial venue aimed at witty marketing ploys spent toward garnering the gluttonous greed of those who can't help but feel drawn to the allure of having a bunch of stuff sitting around.

To others, it's a time of soaring electric bills inflated by the flickering of external illumination and festive decorations. It's higher grocery bills as the inevitable influx of family arrives to all feast upon the good will of those who have the room and a table big enough to fit everyone. It's last second dashes to the store because you don't have enough gravy and you forgot that someone really likes cranberry sauce a little too much. It's day of feverish baking and cooking in order to please the hungry appetites suddenly gathered near.

To a few it's just another day. It's a cold reminder of loved ones who have moved on or moved away. It's a lonely time of realizing what once was yet is no longer. Today is quite possibly the hardest day of the year for many as they watch the Christmas movies filled with scenes of families lovingly rejoicing the happiness they're blessed to share. It's hard for many because life isn't always equal or easy. Many times that festive cheer is a quite difficult feeling to find as there aren't many around off of which to bounce the jolly back and forth.

For everyone though, today is a day of reflection. It may be reflecting on the love of those you don't get to see all that often. May be reflecting on the new goodies you've been gifted, or even the disappointments in want lists not being entirely fulfilled. Perhaps it's reflecting on the past year and sitting in utter amazement at all that's unfolded in the days now behind us. Or, if you're among those who are among the most different, it's actually a time of reflecting on the greatest gift ever given to a bunch of scoundrels who deserve absolutely nothing.

Personally, and I always try to keep these posts from being too much about me, but this year has been bumpy. As cousin Eddie would say, it's the gift that keeps on giving. Seems like every week or month there was a new challenge. The one that stands out for me personally is my exciting first ever ride in an ambulance toward my first ever stay in the luxury suite of the fifth floor of our local hospital when Covid wreaked it's ugly havoc upon our family back in August. And that's just one exciting adventure that none of us remember buying tickets for.

But my point through all that rambling is that in this season of festive lights, there is an unavoidable recollection of the struggles and frustrations and disappointments and distractions upon which the rest of these 364 days seem to usually be built upon. Life is in many ways messy and difficult and wildly unpredictable and definitely uncertain. It brings this constant inconsistency that seems to always catch us off guard. No matter how well we prepare or how hard we wish, life just has a way of going sideways more often than not.

And that's honestly, in my opinion at least, the most important lesson we find during all this celebration of Christmas. It's not the gifts sitting under the tree or the lights hanging on its branches. It’s not the number of family members who knock on the door and share a meal. It’s not how much you have or how much you desperately yearn to remember what you once wished for. It’s not stories of a portly fellow racing through the skies behind a bunch of wild livestock with aspirations of aviation ability.

The grand take away is that no matter what has happened in the days and weeks leading up to this grand, or even simple, or potentially sadly empty day, what matters is the promises that lay ahead. In truth, it doesn't matter what we have or what we want or what we get or what we still want after we get more than we already have.

What matters is the joy we've been given that nothing we can ever face has the right to take away.

Jesus is the one and only reason for this season. He is the gift that we should celebrate long before we unleash our excitement over the ones that fit in boxes. His arrival signals the arrival of our salvation, our hope, our freedom through forgiveness, our opportunity to shake off the dust that's collected and find a new kind of joy that's in no way tied to anything here as it cannot be confined to this place in which all these other things are made.

His light screams into our lives brighter than the brightest of flashing bulb or ornate tree or delicately wrapped nick-knack. It's a light that even our hardships cannot extinguish as it's a light that reminds us of all that God went through and thought of and loving stitched together in order to achieve our adoption back into His family from the distant places we'd wandered looking for our identity. It's a light that stands upon the shore of Heaven's outermost border and beams through the heavy fog and darkened clouds that seem to always be on the horizon of this life.

I actually read through the opening few chapters of Luke last night that tell of the arrival of Jesus and the excitement that was felt among many who had both believed and been patiently awaiting the arrival of this promise they'd heard of and prayed for. But even as this baby's first breaths were fading into this temporal air, there were many who already had their hearts set on ending this message that they had just heard of. Kings and pharisees and teachers of the law all began plotting almost immediately as to how they could put out this light that was sure to cause them distress.

But they couldn't. And no matter how many have and sadly continue those efforts to silence this message of this arrival of this Child we celebrate this day, none have ever accomplished that feat. None have ever successfully banned the Bible, or ended our gatherings to worship and praise, or nipped the bud that is growing relentlessly within the hearts of those who truly believe in Christ and all He means. None in this world, no matter how dark or depraved have ever caused His name to fade.

Because no amount of darkness can stop a light from shining. Even if it's not seen by those who choose to remain distant, it's still shining brightly for those who strive to move ever closer. Even if it's just this faint flicker off in the distance created by the chaos of life at the moment, it's still a flicker of hope that keeps us moving ahead. Even if many can use the darkness of this world as evidence that His light isn't there as their eyes cannot see it through all the smoke and fog of the lies that are always swirling around us, it's still there waiting for them to hopefully look a little harder.

No, no matter what this world does or tries or sells or buys, nothing can eliminate the Name we rejoice over this Christmas day. Nothing can take away what God sent Jesus to bring us. Nothing can replace or outshine the light of the Gospel leading us home. Nothing can drown out the hope we've found in a promise not of this world. Nothing can ever cause His light to stop shining as the light of joy and hope and peace found in Him is and will always be enough to cut through the pains and pressures of life along the way to what comes next.

As we all celebrate, or at least acknowledge this holiday, I pray we all remember what and why we're celebrating. It's a victory. It's a new-found hope. It's an unrelenting peace that only lessens should we allow our eyes to drift from the true meaning of this day. It's a treasure that will not rust, gather dust, be lost, or ever taken away. For where our treasures are, there our hearts are as well. And when Jesus Christ is our treasure, none of this often-hostile worldly weather can get the better of the best He continues to offer.

However you celebrate, remember why you get to celebrate. It's not just another day. It's not just another holiday. It's a new day. It's a new hope. It's a brand new chance to leave yesterday behind and step one step closer to the culmination of the promise which has been, against all odds, told from before the birth of the King we celebrate today. This world and the lives we live in it are often hard, painful, scary, uncertain, and yes plenty dim. But through it all, all the hardships we've faced and disappointments that are sure to come our way, His light remains.

And it always will. That's why we celebrate. It's a light that no amount of darkness or distress can ever take from us. So wherever you are, however you feel, whomever you have around you, whatever you have around you, remember the arrival of the joyous light of His love that died to live inside you. None of this stretch of our story that we call life will ever be perfect or perfectly easy. But it all leads to something that is, and the fact that nothing we've been through, nothing we've been given or had taken away along the way, nothing that we will face up ahead, none of it has or will ever extinguish the light of Christ.

And that's what Christmas is truly all about!

So I close by wishing all a truly Merry CHRISTmas! If you’re like anyone else, and judging by the fact that you’re human, I’d say you are like many, this past year hasn’t been smooth. Maybe this holiday season hasn’t been smooth. Maybe like my family you were jolted from your peaceful calm yesterday afternoon by a fire sprinkler line bursting a couple floors above releasing a surprise torrent of water streaming through pot lights and air ducts. Maybe it all just seems to keep coming. Maybe even this day, the dimness of life continues to gnaw and peck and pester away at the peace you’re so desperate to find.

Just know that this too shall pass. When? Nobody knows for certain. But we have a promise that a King brought to us this day. A promise of a brighter day when the clouds of this stormy life finally roll away. A promise of a hope still to come that will not slow or falter or stumble. Whatever the past days have held, the days ahead hold much to continue rejoicing and hoping.

Know that no matter where you are, you are loved. You are known. You are special. You are among those for whom He came. Because He came for all of us. So, be they near or far, known or foreign, we are all family in Christ. And that truth only adds to the feats our Savior accomplished in His arrival celebrated in what we know as Christmas. He planned this celebration, and though many have tried to dampen the excitement, the fact that any excitement still remains reminds us that His light will never be drown out by the darkness we face while we’re here.

Keep your heads up my friends. This holiday is just a small taste of what we’ll one day celebrate forevermore. Until then, keep the light of Christmas close to heart. Because when He resides inside, nothing outside can make a dent in the joy He exudes within.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold