CELEBRATION

If Christmas is not a celebration then I don’t know what it is.  We get together for parties, we eat great meals (not to mention cookies), we open gifts, we get together with family and friends and we sing some pretty great music.  That is a celebration.

One of the things that I have come to understand about myself is that I have a hard time celebrating things.  I think in many ways I am too task oriented, always thinking about the next thing to get done.  Maybe you find yourself moving from one event to another, from one celebration to another anxious to check off the next thing on your list.  It seems as though many of us have lost the ability to slow down and really celebrate any event.

With that in mind let me risk being trite and predictable.  After Jesus was born that dark night in Bethlehem a great celebration took place out in a field.  Angels sang, shepherds stared and finally ran to celebrate this birth.

Luke records that the shepherds “returned glorifying and praising God for the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”  (Luke 2:20)

The shepherds found that they couldn’t help but celebrate the birth of the One who loved them before they were born.  I want to invite you to join me in the next couple of days to find a few minutes, maybe even carve out a few minutes, when you don’t think about the next thing on your list, your next goal to be achieved or the next celebration to be a part of.  Take a few minutes and celebrate that the God of the universe broke into your world as a baby so that you would have no doubt that you are loved.  In the face of this baby we find forgiveness for our lack of attention to spiritual things, we find a look that is not sizing us up but is instead inviting us in, we find not another thing on our list but the beauty of a completely perfect moment.  In short, we find Celebration.

- Pastor Kevin