I Thessalonians 5:12-18
“See that none of you repays evil for evil,
but always
seek to do good to one another and to
all.”
(I Thessalonians 5:16
The Christmas season can bring out the best in
people, unless, of course, your name is Ebenezer Scrooge. Charles Dickens familiar character from his
classic story, “A Christmas Carol,” despises everything and everyone associated
with Christmas. When confronted by
do-gooders seeking to raise money for the less fortunate and the unreasonable
demands of his clerk, Bob Cratchit, for Christmas day off so he can spend it
with family, Scrooge responds, “Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of
December to pick a man's pockets.”
Of course we know the story
of transformation that comes to Mr. Scrooge as he is visited by the spirits of
Christmas past, present, and future. He
awakens on Christmas morning a changed man and proclaims, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try
to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons
that they teach!”
We love these stories of transformation, particularly at
Christmas. The apostle Paul reminds us,
however, that meaningful change which comes by faith in the living Christ, is
not seasonal change. “…always seek to do good to one another and
to all,” he writes. The true meaning
of Christmas is not found in treating others more kindly for a week or a month,
but in embracing the Christ child as Savior, one is transformed eternally. Thus, Christmas doesn’t temporarily make us
something we aren’t the rest of the year.
Because of what God has done through the gift of Christmas, Jesus,
the Christ, let us agree with Mr. Scrooge and say, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try
to keep it all the year!”
Prayer: Gracious God, continue the work of transformation within
our hearts that in every season, every day, we will keep and share the joy of
Christmas. Amen.
Jim Abernathy
No comments:
Post a Comment