Meh-ry Christmas

Well, I bought my Christmas cards this week - the first week of December. The store I went to didn't have the widest selection.  I probably did my Christmas card shopping too late. I had to settle. Still, I liked the cards I selected. They said exactly what I wanted them to say. Then . . . I brought them home.

"Here's this year's Christmas cards!" I said to my wife with pride.

She looked at them and gleefully said, "Meh."

In that one single word, if 'meh' is indeed a word, my wife summed up exactly what the problem is with the world we live in today. Indifference to what the world needs most. Jesus.

One doesn't have to watch the news for very long to figure out this world has a rather large problem. There is violence everywhere. Paris, San Bernardino, Syrian refugees fleeing their home country just to mention a few. All of these violent episodes have been ignited my Muslim extremists in the name of their god. I look at my choice for a Christmas card. It has all the answers the world could ever need beginning with, "Peace on Earth."

And the cross itself, representing the sacrifice Jesus made so that WE might have peace through His atoning sacrifice, paying the penalty for our sins.

Look at the dove. The dove has traditionally represented peace. The dove is also representative of God's Holy Spirit. And usually we see doves carrying an olive branch, right? But this one is carrying a star. And not just ANY star. It is carrying six-pointed star - different from the five-pointed stars immediately surrounding this cross on the card. Do you know what is significant about the six-pointed star? It is the symbol of Israel, also known as the star of David. The dove (The Holy Spirit) is carrying the star of David. And who is The Bright and Morning Star? The Son of David? Yup. The Holy Spirit is carrying Jesus!

What the world needs now is peace. That can only be obtained through our Savior, Jesus. We need Jesus now more than ever before. Won't you please join me in praying that He will not tarry in his return.

"For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay." - Habakkuk 2:3

Finally, the message inside my Christmas card this year is this:

"2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." - 2 Peter 1:2

The only true way to experience peace in this world is for the world to know God . . . to know Jesus. There simply is no other way. And just how does that happen? Through our words, God's Word, our actions, The Holy Spirit's action, and God's love lived out through the lives of His children.

"13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ." - 1 Corinthians 2:13-16

I still think my card is a good choice. It contains the answer for the world's questions. The only thing is . . . the world will never receive Him because, to them, His message is foolishness. And that is the true tragedy . . . far worse than any mass shooting or terrorist attack. That many people will never know the peace that only Jesus can give . . . peace on earth. What a wonderful Christmas prayer.

Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby and David Bowie