Good Morning
All,
Galatians 5: 22-23; “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control; against such things there is no law.”
“On the fifth day of Christmas, my
true love gave to me five gold rings”.
Today (Dec. 29th) is the fifth day of Christmas. The twelve days of Christmas represent the
length of the Christmas season in the church calendar year. It starts on Dec. 25th and ends on
Jan. 5th. These twelve days
represent the length of the Christmas season in the church. It is the shortest season. During this time frame there was
traditionally much celebrating, feasting and gift giving. We mostly associate this with England,
probably because of the Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and
because of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”.
Yet the celebration is quite common throughout much of the world.
The whole
idea was to celebrate the coming of Jesus and the gift of salvation which he
brings us. There was much merriment and
good old fashion partying. It was common
to give a gift every day of the twelve days to someone that you loved. The gifts depended on how rich you were. The working poor would often give gifts of
food or a small trinket. It was truly
the thought that counted because you only gave to those whom you loved. So if a young lad gave gifts to a young gal,
everyone was excited.
There are
many who wish this country would go back to this style of celebrating. We tend to overspend, overeat, and overdo
everything. This is why most of us are
grateful when Christmas is over. We get
the overload and then just want to decompress from all the noise, excitement,
clamor and disruptions to our lives.
This is a sad commentary on us because the Christmas season often brings
out the best in many of us. It is this
time of the year that we display the fruits of the Spirit the best. This is the time of the year that we are most
generous, we visit the lonely and the shut-ins maybe caroling to them. We have food drives and gift drives for those
who are underprivileged. In general, we
strive to be our best.
Yet most of
us spend all of December trying to get a year’s worth of “goodwill’ in in just
one month. The spirit of Christmas
should intertwine our entire life. It is
through Christmas, the incarnation of God in the form of a man, that we have
salvation. We should celebrate this
every single day. This event has changed
our life forever; we should live Christmas every single day because we are
living in God’s family every single day.
Just knowing this should bring about joy.
So take some
time and think about spreading out your Christmas cheer. Go caroling in June. Have a food drive in September. Live the spirit of Christmas, the fruits of
the Spirit, every day.
Gracious God,
by the incarnation of Jesus you bring salvation to us. Guard us by your Spirit and guide us to live
this life of joy that we have. Be with
those who feel they are left behind and are leftovers. Send your Spirit of comfort to them. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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