by Dr. Paul Chappell
“And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”
Luke 2:16–19
In the book A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens told the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser who cared for money instead of people. Over the course of the story as Scrooge is forced to look back over his life, and consider the future, he undergoes a major shift. Scrooge commits himself to a new course of action. He declares: “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”
The true message of Christmas is not meant just for a few days in December, but for all of our lives. The world around us urgently needs the Good News that Jesus’ coming to earth offers. We live in a society that is becoming increasingly hostile to the truth. Christmas frequently becomes a battleground as lawsuits, protests, and boycotts are used by some to try to force their vision and preferences on everyone.
But keeping Christmas does not require that others agree—it simply requires that our own hearts are where they should be. Mary lived in a nation ruled by a foreign occupying force, under a brutal king who would soon order the murder of all the boy babies in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill her son. She gave birth to her baby among the animals because there was no one willing to take her in. Yet circumstances could not take away what she kept in her heart.
Today’s Growth Principle:
When the true meaning of Christmas is in our hearts, it changes everything about the way we live.
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