Room for Joy

What fills your weeks before Christmas?  Is there room for comfort and joy, or has chaos and stress cluttered up space?

The world’s way to celebrate Christmas leaves no room for Jesus and the blessed silence and peace of the season.  Consumers and commercialism have hijacked our holy day.

I won’t be robbed of Christmas past or Christmas future. We can make a personal choice to preserve the beauty of the yuletide. Just breathe.

Christmas is the gospel of what God has done for us, not what we need to do and keep doing, to the point of exhaustion. Begin a new tradition, relax and contemplate.

Scripture tells us we are to have fullness of joy.  Fullness of the fruit of joy.  The Incarnation came to move into our hearts . . . and take up full residence.

This is the special time of year when people are more charitable and courteous, more giving than getting.   For a few weeks a year we care about one another. Sadly though, for the debt-laden and lonely, Christmas is a time to simply survive.

Carols of exultation take me to the stable and the throne. Sentimental tunes of remembrance instantly take me back to old fashioned Christmases in the farmhouse when our children made clay and paper decorations to trim the tree. Sacred expectation.

Candlelight and franken-scents.

And how can we not love the forever reruns of the Charlie Brown special, when the beloved Linus eloquently recites the holy passage announcing the birth of Jesus, dropping his security blanket.

We focus so much on the fact Jesus died for us, we sometimes forget that He was born for us.

Rejoice!  We are the reason Jesus birthed the season.  The good news, the glorious news, is our joy can be increased.

First, we must receive God’s gift to us.  He is present in the gift.

So, don’t waste a minute, make room for joy . . . there are 39,226 minutes until Christmas day.

 Luke 2:10,11 . . . and the angel of the Lord said to them, “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”