Does the Christmas Grinch threaten to steal your joy during the Christmas season? If so, there is hope!
The signs that Christmas is coming soon are all around us now. Christmas music follows us everywhere we go. Decorations line the streets and cover homes and lawns. People scurry around in stores agonizing over what gifts to buy. And the mail carrier is getting later every day as the volume of Christmas mail grows more abundant.
You may be delighting in it all or trying to ignore it all. Either way, you aren’t alone.
I admit to being slow to get into the Christmas spirit. I dislike getting caught up in the frenzy, some of it rather meaningless or just time-consuming.
But sooner or later, the Christ of Christmas breaks through my grinch-like attitude as He reminds me Who He is and why He came.
Isaiah gave a glimpse of Who this Messiah would be when he wrote:
“For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6 HCSB)
It was more than a prophecy about the birth of the Messiah. It was a promise of Who this Child named Jesus would be for those who believe in Him for millenniums to come.
Who Jesus Came to Be for Us
He is our wonderful Counselor, our all-powerful God, our Father forever, and the Prince who brings peace in every situation.
He is our personal Counselor, giving us wisdom for every situation.
He is sovereign in our lives, working everything together for good.
He is our loving Daddy, holding us safe and secure in His arms.
He is present in every situation, filling our hearts and minds with peace.
When we struggle to deal with life’s troubles, we can look to Him to be all these things (and more) for us.
To me, the most wonderful part is that He’s available all the time, even in the middle of the night, and even when it seems no one else fully understands.
Not Just for Now
But that’s not all. Because Jesus came and died for us making us God’s children, we have an eternal inheritance.
“When the time came to completion, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7 HCSB)
Jesus left the warmth of His Father’s Home to come to earth to experience all that we do: physical needs and discomforts, human desires and disappointments, rejection from others, and disloyalty from those closest to Him.
He did this so we could also become children of His Father and eventually join them for all eternity.
There, we will receive our ultimate inheritance with Jesus!
But for now we can experience part of it, which includes full access at any time to our Heavenly Father who is our Wonderful Counselor, our Mighty God, our Eternal Father, and our Prince of Peace.
Saying Good-bye to the Grinch
We don’t have to feel like the Grinch at Christmas, no matter our circumstances. Because of Jesus and all He came to be for us, we can show the Grinch the door! The most wonderful aspect of Christmas to celebrate is that Jesus came as Emmanuel, which means God WITH us. There is no greater gift than that!
Otho Horst
Very good Fern. Yes Christmas is a reminder that Jesus is God’s gift to us and It is a fact that Jesus is with us all the time. He cares for us and helps us in every thing that we need to do. We give and receive gifts because of the joy that both the giver and receiver get. Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas. Keep up the good inspirational writing. God bless you.