Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and you know it happens every time about now. You hear a carol or two on the radio. You see lights go up on a neighbor’s house. Somebody sends you a Christmas card early. And someone else happens to mention that there are less than twenty shopping days until Christmas. Yikes! You can’t believe it. Christmas is about to happen and you don’t know where the time has gone. Seems just yesterday you were trying to think of a hundred-and-one ways to use up leftover turkey and here it is, December the 5th. You feel this, this pressure to get into the Christmas spirit. One way is to sing with me this song—“Away in a Manger”; it’s a great way to get into the Christmas spirit …
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head
The stars in the bright sky look down where he lay
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.
Well, there you go—it proves it. You can simply wait around for the Christmas spirit to hit you or you can create singing a song like that. It’s very simple. Even though it’s only the first week of December, you can take a big step toward making the spirit of Christmas come alive in your heart—and you can get it started by thinking on and meditating on all that the birth of the Lord Jesus means to you, and now’s the best time to do it. I know, as a kid growing up in the Reformed Episcopal Church, our family would use the Book of Common Prayer to get into the Christmas spirit. The Scripture readings for the first part of the Advent season always, always got us thinking about our need of a Savior … how so? Well, many of the Scriptures for the first part of Advent season are readings from Isaiah and some of the Minor Prophets and those readings focus on how lost, utterly lost in sin we humans really are! How much we do need to be rescued. And, of course, that makes the meaning of Christmas come alive.
Maybe that’s why God puts nostalgia in the hearts of us this time of year. He wants us to define that nostalgia as nothing more than a deep human longing to come home and adore His Son. Oh, sure, holly and ivy, candles and sparkling lights and trees all decorated help those longings for the “perfect Christmas.” And those things are nice, but there’s nothing like creating the real Christmas spirit by focusing on just why you need a Savior—why you desperately need Jesus. Oh, thank you Jesus for coming and bringing your light into our dark world.
Okay, so it’s still early, so it’s only the fifth of December. I’m just asking please don’t let the frazzle of these next few weeks rob you of the real joy of what this time of year is all about. Get a head start by creating your own Christmas spirit. Recognize your need of a Savior. Let’s celebrate that God sent His Son to save us from our sins! By the way, I want to give you a beautifully illustrated booklet that tells all about the real Spirit of Christmas; it’s called the Christmas Story and you can get yours today by visiting me on my radio page at joniandfriends.org. And post a couple of comments there or on my Facebook page about how you are generating the Christmas spirit this early in the season. Again, that’s my radio page at joniandfriends.org.
© Joni and Friends
Used by permission of Joni and Friends
P.O. Box 3333, Agoura Hills, CA 91376