Author: Rev. Daniel Vigilante, Pastor
Meditation
There’s a chance you’re reading this on Christmas Day. If so, Merry Christmas to you, dear friend.
I have to admit, however, that I’m writing this message over a week before Thanksgiving. After all, we have a deadline to meet in order to get Tower Tidings into your hands by the first Sunday in Advent!
But even though we’re still days away from Thanksgiving, and even though I usually resist the temptation to do so until much later, last night I put up our Christmas tree. I had a few moments of spare time and I figured I could use a little Christmas spirit right now. It’s amazing how bringing out the tree, stringing it with some lights, and setting some ornaments on its branches can do wonders for your outlook on things.
Soon enough there will be presents under that tree – and maybe by the time you read this they’ll all be opened. (Hopefully you got everything you wanted)! Then all too soon we’ll put it away again. Such is the way things go at this time of year. You set up the tree a week or two early only to have the days fly by until it’s over and things go back to the way they were.
Scripture tells us that at the birth of Jesus, an angel declared to some shepherds, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” In the gospels, Luke writes, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.’”
Which makes me wonder… Is Christmas more than the tree, the presents, the lights, the fleeting moments when (maybe) your outlook temporarily improves? Where is the true joy; the everlasting peace; the angels proclaiming God’s glory?
I’ve heard that in some cultures, people don’t place their gifts under a tree, but around a nativity scene. The ideas is that what we’re looking for isn’t actually a brief improvement in our attitude – but the total transformation of our hearts into people who embody the hope, peace, joy, and love of Jesus. So if those are the things you’re looking for, the way they are for me, may they be born in us today.
