Merry Christmas! This is one of those attitude days. You know, the days when you don't wake up feeling merry, but instead have to depend on God to adjust your attitude to one more to His liking. Did you see the video of the roof collapse in Minneapolis? The Teflon roof on their domed stadium collapsed and dumped a bunch of snow on the football field yesterday, which in turn forced the NFL to move the Vikings-Giants game to Detroit...and give out free admission to an NFL game. Okay, maybe no one was forced to make the game free of charge, but something good can come from an apparent disaster. I'm catching up on my Ken Davis podcasts at the same time, trying to help God out with that attitude adjustment I need this morning. More news from today: that duo you see on the Hyundai commercial singing Up on the Housetop goes by the name of Pomplamoose... I'm not kidding. My spell checker even burped on that one. What's a pomplamoose? I like their tune though; might even have to see what else they have recorded. Won't be easy to forget the name, maybe that was their intent.
Some other names that are not easy for us to forget... would normally be very easy to forget: Mary, Joseph, Peter, Paul, James, and John could refer to many people we know. However, in the context of the Bible, the names suddenly have new meaning. At this time of the year, if you mention Mary and Joseph together many people will assume you are feeling the Christmas spirit. We hear the names, Mary and Joseph, and the entire Christmas story falls into place in our minds, probably with a few unauthorized additions such as: the number of wise guys (no number given in Matthew) or the time of the year (December the 25th, right?). Though we wouldn't come to call it Christmas for some years, God did put on quite the show to start the Christmas story. Angels, a star, wise men from the East, Mary and Gabriel, Joseph and his dream, the journey to Bethlehem at just the right time, and the heavenly host giving the shepherds a rousing chorus to send them on their way to Bethlehem. And all of those wonderful tales are only a part of the Christmas story. The most important part is another of those instantly recognized names: Jesus.
The greatest gift ever given was the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The great events surrounding the birth of Jesus were only the wrapping paper on that gift of gifts. We delight in the stories, but Jesus had more to tell, and then he gave his life to save us from sin.
I pray that your Christmas is filled with joy!
Bucky
P.S. Apparently a pomplamoose is the French word for grapefruit. Must have missed that one in my one year of French back in high school.
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