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This past Sunday, Chess greeted the congregation with a hearty and heartfelt "Merry Christmas".  This was a little startling as I was pretty sure we had JUST had Thanksgiving, and I thought I still had a whole month until Christmas.  After a few seconds of thought, though, I have to admit that I smiled, and I was right there with him.  I realized that we Christians are supposed to be celebrating Christ's birth and the Joy and Peace that we associate with the "Holiday Season" all year around.  

It isn't Christmas because it is December, it is Christmas because God sent his Son to the Earth to be born of a woman and live as one of us.  We know that Jesus was with God at the creation, and that He loved the world so much that despite man's sinful state, God decided to sacrifice his only begotten Son so that we might have the hope of salvation.  In a culture and at a time when so many of us are so often distracted by the worldly pleasures, pains, difficulties, burdens, and amusements, it is important for us to carry the Joy of Christmas in our hearts all year long.

It's even more than that though.  We are called to be salt and light, to be a beacon of Jesus' love to the whole world...that means that it can't just be hidden in our hearts, but it needs to be worn on our sleeves, woven into our speech, apparent in our actions, even in our work and our play.  It is Christmas all year around for us. Jesus' gift is always with us, and we are always dependent on it.  

This Christmas season, I encourage you to seek out time with your family, your friends, and your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Celebrate our Lord and Savior's birth, his willingness to sacrifice himself for us, and the joy that his coming to Earth brings all of us.  Do that with decorations, with food, with songs, gathering together for things like the ornament exchange, and carrying the Love of Jesus in your heart, on your lips, and in your every action as you move out into the world as the salt and light that you are called to be. 

Christians are called to be like Christ, all year long, in every situation and relationship, so let's lean into doing that, Christmas is here!  It always has been, and it always will be!  

Maybe next year Chess will be comfortable saying "Merry Christmas" sometime around July.

- Lance