Merry Christmas!

I cannot believe it is already this time of year!

Christmas time is probably the busiest time of year, besides Back-To-School season (in my opinion, it even tops that). It's rush, rush, rush, shop, shop, shop, flop on your bed exhausted or stay up all night watching the Grinch try to steal Christmas for the zillionth time.

It's also a season of reflecting. On loved ones who have passed on. On what you did that year.

But we've completely missed the heart of Christmas. There's a reason it's called that, and it's also the reason why some people prefer "happy holidays".

Christ is the reason for Christmas! It is a celebration of his birth on earth to take away our sins. As the beloved verse says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, so that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Do you remember this reason? Amid the lights and the glamour and the craziness of Christmas, we can lose sight of it. As Lucy told Charley Brown, "Christmas is just a big commercial event." Is it? That's what many people make it out to be, and they willingly forget what it's all about. Maybe they don't want to remember.

This Christmas, I want you to remember the meaning of Christmas. I challenge you to do something to help you remember it. Watch The Nativity, read Luke's account in the Gospels, meditate on some Scripture. Remind yourself that the star on your tree is like the Star that once shone over Bethlehem. The lights on the tree might be bright, but it pales in comparison to the light that Jesus is in the world.

"In him was life and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (ESV)

Let his light shine in your life this Christmas, and into the New Year. Share the light with those around you. Remember Jesus came to earth because he loved YOU.

Merry Christmas!