Monday, December 18, 2023
“Saving the Best for Last”
One more week to Christmas! Today is the last Monday before Christmas but it’s also the first day of the week. This allows us to have the best Christmas experience by Saving the Best for Last.
Since this is the final week before Christmas, the Christmas mood will be in full expression. Our environment will be swamped with Holiday stuff and the excitement will be evident. If we’re not already in the Christmas mood then we can expect to be pushed and pulled by the almighty Christmas culture.
The week before Christmas represents many things. For some people, it’s the culmination of parties, events, and gatherings. For other people, this week will be a true exercise in patience, as they interact with anxious family members or wait to open their gifts. Others will stay home longing to see family and loved ones, while still others will be running about picking up last-minute batteries and toilet paper.
How are you going to receive Christmas this year? Since we are in the final week, this becomes the best opportunity of 2023 to make this Christmas the most special one yet. “How?”, you might say. By truly and totally focusing on the meaning of God’s gift of Christmas, then interpreting and putting it to work in our own lives.
All of us are created uniquely different, therefore, each of us will receive Christmas differently. Whatever happens today will be yours. The person who sacks your groceries will be feeling a certain way. The neighbor putting their trash by the curb is experiencing Christmas in their own manner. Our special loved ones, though they may be with us already, will still be expressing and interpreting Christmas in their own way, independent of us.
God’s gift of Christmas is this: God has intervened in our lives. God could have provided life any way that God wanted, but instead of all the other options God could have chosen (including destroying all of us), God decided to intervene in the middle of our lives. God hand-delivered Christmas to the world so that we could experience Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love in this life. Christmas is not defined by the gifts we buy or the food we cook. Christmas is defined by our love for the LORD and the way we express it to others.
The person who sacks our groceries needs a Christmas smile. The neighbor fighting with their trash cans needs a helping hand. Our special loved one needs to know that we truly care for who they are, not for whom we expect them to be.
This is the last week before Christmas. This can be the best week we’ve ever experienced if we focus on God’s gift of Christmas as interpreted in our own lives. Nobody else can do it and God has given us free will so that we can make our own choice. I think that’s pretty cool and that’s why I’ve Saved the Best for Last. It’s not going to be for me. It’s gonna be all about you.
“Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’ (Matthew 25:40, CEB)