Tag: Christmas

Greetings, Visitors and New Beginnings Family! Pour yourself a cup of coffee if you choose, and pull up a chair for the latest edition of Coffee with Gary entitled “Lasting Christmas Joy.”

A few weeks ago, I got a letter in the mail with a “Happy Holidays” postmark. This caused me to wonder what happens to “happy “ after the “holiday” is over. Over the years, Christmas has morphed into a celebration of winter. After all, what are we celebrating when we sing, “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas”? Incidentally, I have always wondered what people living in the southern hemisphere are thinking when they sing this song. The truth is that by “Groundhog Day,” we’re dreaming of spring. We hope that by putting our trust in superstition, we will have an early spring instead of enduring six more weeks of winter.

Or, how many of us might buy an extravagant gift for someone we love only to have them forget about it or get bored with it before the end of January? This, just as the giver is reminded of it every month by their monthly payment.

Often, happiness is a fleeting feeling of gladness that is here today and gone tomorrow. The root word of happiness is the adjective happy. Happy is defined as delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing. Another definition of happy is favored by good fortune or luck. (Dictionary.com)

In all the to-do about “Happy Holidays,” the true meaning of Christmas is frequently lost. This is not to say there is anything wrong with celebrating winter and gift-giving, but they need to be kept in their proper perspective.

Joy – though a synonym of happy – is a noun defined as “the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation”.  Another definition is “a source or cause of great delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated”. (Dictionary.com)

Jesus is our joy that continues throughout the year and into eternity. Compare this with the joy you have in your children and other loved ones in your family. You may not always be happy with your loved ones, but you still take joy in them. Joy is sure and reliable, especially when the reason for our joy is in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true reason for Christmas. (Luke 2:8-20)

God, who is love and is motivated by love, expressed His joy in mankind to the shepherds by proclaiming the free gift of salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ. Upon hearing God’s “Good News,” the shepherds, in turn, expressed their joy to God and His Son Jesus by spreading the good news and glorifying and praising God.

Some people don’t know why they give gifts at Christmas. They just go through the motions. In joy, believers in Christ give others gifts to symbolize the best and most costly gift anyone can receive. That is God’s wonderful gift of salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Lasting joy also involves sacrifice. Think of your children and the joy you take in them. Think of all the sacrifices you make to raise your children and, in essence, make your joy complete.

Now think of the sacrifice God the Father and God the Son had to make to save us. For Jesus, the sacrifice included bearing the punishment for our sins on the cross so that we could enjoy everlasting life with Him. For God the Father, this meant having to forsake His Son on the cross.

It is for joy, motivated by love that Jesus suffered and died on the cross. The cross was necessary to make the joy of Christ complete. Trials are also essential to complete our joy in Christ as we keep our eyes focused on Him.

Like the shepherds of old, Jesus is our joy, and we are His. One day in heaven, our joy in Christ will be complete, and happiness will no longer be fleeting. (John 15:10-12)

Your fellow pilgrim in looking for a country of our own (Hebrews 11:13-16),

Gary