Christmas Every Day

It is hard to resist. ’Tis the season to receive catalogs from companies you never knew existed. ’Tis the season for glossy advertisements peddling gifts your loved ones absolutely don’t have to have.

’Tis the season for people to spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need because society tells us that’s what they’re supposed to do.

There isn’t a commandment that says you have to celebrate Christmas, which means there certainly isn’t a commandment that says you have to get sucked into the vortex of get, get, get, have, have, have.

What really is the most important thing? When the truck has come to take away the trash, and the tree has been taken down, and the relatives are gone, and the kids have gone back to college or have returned home with their own families; when all the food has been eaten, and the lights have been taken down, and the stores have stopped playing Christmas music —what will you be left with? If Christmas is all about getting, you will be happy just until your gifts lose their luster. If Christmas is all about giving, you’ll soon forget what you gave to whom and how much you spent on which present— until the credit card statement arrives. But if Christmas is about accepting the gift God gave the world, then you have something that will stay with you.

If your focus is in the right place, it can be Christmas every day.

God so loved the world that, two thousand years ago, He gave His only begotten Son. And long before that, He pledged to give Jesus to the world should humanity fall into sin. That’s a gift you can truly appreciate.

And it’s a gift everybody needs.

If you remember the great gift of God and commit to sharing that gift with others, every day can be Christmas day.