Christmas # 72
As I get ready to celebrate this year’s Christmas it struck me this will be number 72 for me. Another reminder that I’m getting up there. The other day the question was put to me how old are you in your eighth decade? I thought, hmmm, you’re in your 70’s when you are in your eighth decade.
So here I am and I think I do what many people do as they get to my age. I remember. I have a lot of decades of things to remember and so many situations and things trigger so many memories.
In church this morning, not surprisingly, we sang Christmas songs. I thought back to when I was in grade school. Back then the Bible and Jesus and Christmas were all still in the public school. It was the last day before Christmas vacation began and our whole school, all eight grades and the kindergartners were sitting on the gym floor singing Christmas songs.
I remember the warm feeling of friends celebrating together and the joy of singing about our Saviour’s birth. I also remembered being at my grandparent’s house one Christmas. That was when my grandfather still had his health and he had a flock of sheep. 
Much to our grandmother’s concern he brought in a young lamb for us grandchildren to hold and pet while Grandpa read us the Christmas story from the Bible in Luke chapter 2.11 ‘For unto you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.’
Grandma is a favorite of mine. She was a musician who played piano and organ in church and gave piano lessons in her home. She would have us sing Bible songs when we came to visit and she taught us Bible verses.
And she often made her point in a life lesson by quoting from the Bible. I tried to measure up to her standards but mostly I failed. She would tell us stories about her life. My favorite was when her Mother, my Great Grandma was very ill and her husband, my Great Grandpa woke up my Grandma and her little sister in the night. He had them bundle up and come out with him to the barn and there he asked them to pray for their Momma. “Because the Good Lord listens to the prayers of little children.” And my Great Grandma got well.
This morning during church and the Christmas songs I thanked the Good Lord for my family and parents and grandparents who taught me about Christmas. My Dad didn’t want us to focus too much on presents and the commercial side of Christmas so he didn’t encourage gifts. In fact he discouraged them. But looking back, Christmas came to mean more to me than wondering what present I would or would not be getting. Instead I often thought of the meaning behind Christmas celebrations. I would wonder why people gave presents at Christmas. I decided the true meaning of Christmas was not about toys or time off or too much dessert or new clothes. The true meaning of Christmas was a deeper spiritual truth. About the Gift God gave us out of his mercy and grace. Romans 5.8b ‘while we were sinners, Christ died for us’
God sent His Son, Jesus to us so that He could be the sacrifice that would cleanse any who would believe in Him from their sins. Sins that keep us from being in a right relationship with God. Sins that keep us from being with God forever. John 3.17 ‘God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.’
I got older and had children of my own and it was important to me that they would understand about Christmas, too. I tried to show them from the Bible and by my choices in life that we are responsible to God our Maker. But, like everyone else, I often failed.
God was not surprised by my failures. He had a plan. The same Jesus that died for my sins, died for them all. Once I had believed in Him, when I failed Him I had only to confess my failure to Him and He would forgive me and restore me to fellowship with Him. 1 John 1.9 ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’
I thought of my many failures this morning, too. And I thought how gracious the Good Lord is to provide a way for me to come back to Him and try again, over and over.
As I reflect on my 72nd Christmas and prepare to not just be with family, nor just give and get presents, to not just dress up and eat good food. To not even play and sing music. I also prepare to worship the God who along with everything else created me to be me.
He made me the way I am and now I have the precious memories of
singing praises to God with childhood friends, my grandparents, my parents, my brothers and sisters, my wife and my children. My youngest daughter was eight years old when we recorded her singing her favorite song that year, Do You Hear What I Hear?
Another Christmas our family sang Light of the Stable. And yet another Christmas we sang Christmas carols in nursing homes. Each time I hear those songs I remember the times when my children were young and we praised God together.
There is not much real hope in this bleak world we are in. Not much at all. But if we have believed in Jesus we have a hope that cannot perish or fade away. At 71 I realize I’m getting close to the end of this life. But my eternal life is just around the corner. It will last forever. I treasure my memories but more than that I look forward to what the Lord has planned for me and for all who would put their trust in Him.
Romans 4.5 ‘to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,’