Something happens to people at Christmas…well, maybe not all people. Some, however, in the spirit of the season, are less grumpy, kinder, even more forgiving than at any other time in the year. There are the heartwarming stories of military combatants putting aside their weapons to sing “Silent Night” together on Christmas Eve. Perhaps you have seen this at work, with a neighbor, or someone at school who seems different at this time of year. Then there is the story of transformation in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” as the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge becomes a kind and generous man overnight.
Speaking of Dickens, he writes, “I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys”
Is the change of heart that seems apparent at Christmas only to be a seasonal change, confined to a particular observance...or is there more?
In today’s text, the Lord challenges the children of
Perhaps the words of Ebenezer Scrooge are appropriate in closing…”I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” May the Christ of Christmas empower us to share his love throughout the year.
Prayer: Thank you Lord for loving us in every season, and calling us to love others as we love ourselves…always. Amen.
Jim Abernathy
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