Over on my right is our living room fireplace. The idea of having a fireplace in Arizona is a little silly, but it's there and that's where Mom hung all our Christmas cards this year. They say things like "Joy, Peace, Love"; "Celebrating Faith, Family, Friends" and "Joy to the World". I would say those are things that we shouldn't tie down to one day. What if we did that to other things?
Well, tomatoes are really great, but let's only eat them one day of the year.
I love being married to you, so let's make our marriage super special and only go on dates one day out of
365.
My job is meaningful and gives me a chance to change the world, but I only work 1 day a year so it doesn't
get old.
That's a lot of crap and you know it. I realize that for the sake of Hallmark, we have to organize our holidays around calendar days. You can't sell cards for Valentines Day if you don't squish your celebration of love into a day. Well, retail world, that's fine. You make your cute Christmas wreaths and nasty chalk Valentines candy and Easter peeps. But you've sorely underestimated me if you think I'm going to be able to stuff all of my Christmas excitement into one little day, or even a month-long season.
Those big things on the Christmas cards - faith, family, friends, joy, peace, love - they exist because of a truth. The baby born in a manger was the savior that made "God and sinner, reconciled" possible. That baby wasn't born so we could have a nice looking manger scene or so people could write songs about cows and angels. Christmas happened to make Easter possible. Thirty some years later, that baby traded the splinters of a cow trough for the splinters of a cross. That "God and sinner, reconciled" thing? That means that there's hope for the mess we made. It means that Christmas and Easter are inseparable and their importance is paramount.
The scale of that hope is a reason to celebrate on December 25... and Easter, and January 5, and April 10, and whatever other day you happen to be alive. That churchy word - gospel, or "good news" is talking about what happened at Christmas and Easter and the years in between. The good news is that Jesus came, lived, died, and came to life again. He kicked sin and death in the face and gave us a way to have a relationship with God again.
I think singing "Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant" and "Christ the Lord is risen today aaaaaaalleluia" are things we should be singing, humming, whistling, and celebrating whether it's 4:15 on a Monday in June or 7:00 on Christmas morning. Give gifts! Get together! Make fudge! Christmas is too good to be confined.
Celebrating Christmas today and every day,
Little Miss Sunshine
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