Christmas...Time

Time is a fleeting thing. I knew this to be true, yet in the past few years this fact has become a greater reality to me. I have watched my children grow into adulthood before my eyes and begin their journey into the realms that God has prepared “beforehand that they should walk therein.” I have attended the 30th anniversary gathering of my high school graduation class to see my peers having aged and expanded, some more or less, than I have in the span of three decades. I have completed ten years of service as pastor here in the beautiful hamlet of Evergreen, mentally reviewing the many lives, both deceased and still living, of those who have touched mine during that time period. It is astounding how, in all of the above instances, it literally seems “just like yesterday”...and yet “my how time flies” to find us where we are today.

This same reality check avails itself to the Christmas story. We read it in the Gospels as if it were so very long ago, so very far away. Yet, the message it conveys to us should be “just like yesterday”, as close as our touch, never far from our memories because of the impact the birth of Christ has made on our lives individually and personally. We see Him in the manger and remember that the very purpose of this innocent little baby boy being born was to grow into a man to die on the cross for sinners, for “His people” (rf. Matthew 1:21), His “sheep” (rf. John 10:11). The angels attending the birth proclaimed “good news of great tidings which shall be for all the people”, the declaration of the Gospel. The Jewish shepherds, like the Gentile magi, came to worship at His feet. They would return sharing boldly the truth of the birth of the Promised Messiah.

As we celebrate Christmas, especially in an increasingly secularized society and culture, let us never grow so complacent with the holiday that we forget its inherent meaning, especially the true purpose behind it. Time may be fleeting and our memories undependable, but we should not let the treasures of our Christian past become mere relics of a bygone day. Rather, may we become proactive in keeping the realities of our faith very much alive by carefully explaining what we believe and why we believe them, especially as they apply to important holidays such as Christmas. Then, when our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. take forward and pass on our faith legacies, they will do so with the full knowledge of what these celebrations mean in respect to the Scriptures, Church history and the important role they are to our own personal walk with Christ. Then maybe they will be engulfed in the desire to keep up the good work of “redeeming the time”(rf. Ephesians 5:16 KJV) that we’ve been given, fleeting as it may be.