I love Dr. Seuss! I love Christmas! And I love to watch "The Grinch that Stole Christmas"! Tonight was the long awaited night-the first time that it was on TV for the Christmas holiday season.
It is animated and rhymes and is only 30 minutes long. But I enjoy watching it again and again each year.
A condensed version? A mean looking creature can't stand that the town below him loves Christmas and celebrates it in a big way with decorations and food and friends. He thought that by taking away all of the things he would be happy and they would be sad. Only, they showed him that the true meaning of Christmas to them wasn't dependent on the 'things'.
We are coming off a month of thankfulness. As we live one day at a time we struggle to live our lives content with what we have. We are now entering in the Christmas season where the schedule picks up speed and starts snowballing down a hill at a fast clip. We are invited to parties and have family get-togethers and gift exchanges and dinners and shopping and gift wrapping and many other fun activities. But sometimes our schedules get so busy and our lives get so cluttered that we weary quickly and lose our focus on the main thing-Christ.
We weren't there but we have a great record in God's Word on the celebration of the first Christmas.
Luke 2:8-20
"Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them."
Can you imagine the wonder of it all? It would have been so quiet out in the fields with just the stars and the sheep, until the choir of angels sang out in harmony-amazing!
Then can you hear the animals softly mooing and neighing and baaing in the dark barn with a little baby wrapped and laying in the straw?
It wasn't commercialized. It was just God! As you head into this Christmas season-enjoy the fun times with family and friends but don't let it overwhelm you or take precedent over the true meaning of the season-Jesus! He came to earth as a baby born of a virgin so that He could die on a cross later to take all of our sins so that we could have the greatest gift of all-Eternal Life with Him! If you haven't already, accept His gift of salvation!
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