More Christmas


       Once upon a time “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was more than a reallllly long song. There were actually 12 days of Christmas.  Each day was often accompanied by  traditions and celebrations of their own.  If one included Christmas Eve then you actually had 13 days of Christmas, but folks get all antsy about things that come in 13.  (I will save my pro-thirteen rant for another day)  Personally I think we have really missed out on something great by only having one day of Christmas. 
    In the spirit of full disclosure I have to admit to loving Christmas.  I love the music. I love the decorations.  I love the food.  I love the traditions.  I insist on keeping the tree up at our house until well into January, in fact I get all melancholy when we take it down.   Christmas is great, why can’t we have 12 days of it? 
    Every year we string lights, put up trees, and deck the halls all to celebrate the day of the Christ-Mass.   And then in a blink, after weeks of preparation, it’s over.   I once knew a woman who had her whole house decorated in Christmas themed rooms all year long.  If you asked her “why?” she would laugh and tell you that she wondered why everyone didn’t do it.    Well, it’s a good question.    Why don’t we decorate for Christmas all year long?  Imagine our world if we were all decked out for the baby Jesus 365 days of the year.  It sounds a lot brighter and cheerier.  Maybe all that Christmas good spirit would wear thin after a while.   Maybe we would all get tired of flashing lights and manger scenes.    Maybe we would sit around and long for a color scheme other than red and green.  My friend in South Carolina who had the Christmas house never seemed to get tired of it. 
   Maybe what we ought to do isn’t decorate our house with Christmas good cheer all year long.  Maybe we ought to decorate our lives with Christmas all year long.  Maybe the world would be made a better place not through tinsel but through compassion, not by wrapping but by charity, not by pine trees but by joy and wonder.    So, we don’t deck our halls with boughs of holly from December to November, but maybe, just maybe we ought to have a little more Christmas in our hearts in July, and September, February, and April.  Maybe this is how a world gets decorated properly.  Maybe that is how peace on earth and goodwill toward men get’s actually accomplished.   That… and more Christmas cookies. 

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Pastor Rus.