While talking with an old friend recently, they asked me if I have ever felt like Rip Van Winkle? and I said, “very often.” Now, some may think perhaps that may be a little extreme thinking — since Van Winkle slept for 100 years but, like my friend, I recently have begun to think I have been asleep for a few years now in spite of both of us have always considered ourselves to have been observant about things happening around us; or so we thought.
My friend said their real awakening started recently as they had promised their grandchildren and niece they would help them make stained glass windows for decorating and one item needed to start the project, a Christian-themed Christmas coloring book; easy to find right? Wrong!
They told me they had gone to several stores in Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers in search of the needed book and not one store visited had a Christmas Christian-themed coloring book. Now, the stores had plenty of Christmas coloring books; they had Dora The Explorer, Sponge Bob, Barbie, Mickey Mouse and Super Hero books but not one Christian-themed coloring book. All of the store clerks spoken to were nice and pleasant, but not one had an answer for why they were not stocking a Christian-themed coloring book.
Determined to find one, they began to look for Christmas-themed coloring books in every store, on television, anywhere they could think of and finally woke up to a fact I’ve been teaching for as many years as I’ve been a pastor; the fact that Christmas is not found in stores, on television, or even in the local Christian book store; Christmas is found in each of our hearts if we are called Christian.
Yes, we celebrate Christmas and the birth of our dear Savior in December each year. However, unless we are celebrating Christ all year long, we are not truly celebrating Christmas. Just as Jesus asked Peter, “Whom do you say I am?” We must ask ourselves who do we say Jesus is? For, you see, the true Christmas was born in our hearts the day we accepted Christ as our Savior and asked him to create a clean heart within us.
You see, while the world celebrates a day, Christians celebrate a life — a life that God sent to this earth so many years ago to reconcile us to Him and to bring us everlasting life —if we will only accept that precious gift.
Christmas is not about the trees, the pretty decorations, gifts or wonderful smells and sights we see each December, it is about the knowledge that a living Savior came to this earth to give us the gift of eternal life and we, as Christians have to keep Christmas in our hearts throughout the year and never hesitate to share its true meaning with a hurting world.
I pray everyone had a Merry Christmas; each and every one of you. But now I ask you to go further if you are a Christian and touch your heart and silently whisper “thank you, Lord, for each new day” and have a Merry Christmas every day and, if you aren’t a Christian, to simply ask Christ into your life — you’ll find He will answer that invitation.
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Editor’s note: Charlie Newman is pastor of Avoca Christian Church. To contact him, e-mail pastor@ pastorcharlie.net, or write in care of The Times at [email protected] or P.O. Box 25, Pea Ridge, AR 72751.