Joy and Life Reborn

December is--without a doubt--my craziest month of the year. I have actually found myself wishing the month and the season was over.

When did I become such a pessimist??

December--and especially Christmas--was my favorite time of year when I was a child. Christmas was always forever away, even if it was coming tomorrow. I'd lie awake at nights and just smile.

Where did all that joy go?

I've been thinking about that. A lot. And the answer I came up with is, I don't think it's gone.

I think I buried it.

Under the shopping, the wrappings, the pictures and seasonal cards, the obligatory gifts, the mandatory meetings, the bills and receipts, and the overwhelming expectations, my childlike joy is hidden.

It's time to bring it back. It's time to rediscover what the celebration is really all about. It's time to reclaim the heavenly joy that was brought to the world, which the world seems so intent on casting aside, forgetting, burying.

In my quiet searching, I found the answer of why those angels were shouting for joy.

It was for ME.

(That sounds very pompous, but bear with me, because it was for YOU, too.)

The worth of one soul--my soul, your soul--was worth summoning all those heavenly choirs and singing the dawn of redemption into existence. The birth of the Babe born in Bethlehem was really the rebirth of souls that He would save.

We were no longer lost! We were no longer buried! We were to be reclaimed, redeemed, and exalted!

(Are you starting to hear your inner child sing yet?)

I am so valued, so precious, so loved, that my Savior came for me. And He came for you. He came for us all.

I don't know about you, but I let that fall from my focus far too often. And sometimes I try to bury it alive.

If I really understood that I am God's child and Jesus Christ died for me, then I would change some things.

I would forgive myself faster. I would treat you better. I would pray to see the potential of mankind instead of seeing only the fog of faults.

And you know what else? I would rejoice more. I would truly rejoice. And no amount of wrapping, meetings, shopping, and bills would soften the volume of my triumphant exultations.

I hope I was in those angelic choirs, singing praises to Him who was born to save souls. But whether I was or not shouldn't stop me from singing now.

Let us adore Him with such clarity and purpose that all will know what the celebration is really about.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."