Merry Christmas

For those of you who have been in our home, you know that Christmas is a big deal to us. Peggy and I love to prepare for Christmas. We have five trees decorated, a christmas village, and snowmen everywhere. Christmas is important to us and it is important for a number of reasons. Let me give you a few. It is so much fun to celebrate Christmas with our children. Decorating our house is just part of the preparation. Putting presents under the tree reminds of the expectation of what is to come. Reading the Christmas story on Christmas morning prepares our hearts. And opening presents with a flury of flying paper gives us joy.

We also  love to have big Christmas parties or friends over for dessert during Christmas. We will fill this holiday serving our guests and making them feel at home. We love to have our family in and share a meal together. People are a part of this special season. It is fun playing Christmas games, exchange cheap presents (Some of them are things that you didn't want any longer) and laughing together as friends and family. Christmas is not a time to be alone but to fill our home with special people.


If Christmas is only parties, decorations, friends, and family then we missed the true joy of this special holiday. God gave us a gift. That gift came wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. Jesus is the reason for Christmas. I know that some of you have heard that Christmas was really the celebration of the sun god, that christmas trees were a pagan ritual, and that December 25th really isn't Jesus' birthday.  If you want to use those excuses to keep you from celebrating the birth of the greatest gift known to man, that is your choice. But for me and my house, December 25th is the birth of the King of the universe. On Christmas, I celebrate the true Son of God becoming flesh. Every tree in our house with a star or angel on top is a reminder of the angelic anouncement saying, "God is with us!" And every gift represents the greatest gift mankind ever received: Salvation came to man! The baby wrapped up and placed in a manger is my Savior.


It is Christmas; the birthday of the King. So put up a tree, have some friends over, tell the Christmas story, buy some cheezy gifts, throw a ham in the oven, sing a Christmas carol or two, and celebrate the greatest gift you will ever receive. Merry Christmas!


In His Love,
Pastor Aaron