Well, welcome back to another podcast. It is Christmas Day and
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you.
Yeah.
And we hope that it's been or going to be a great day for you and your family.
I wonder about Christmas and what people expect to be under their tree giftgiving. Are you when you woke up this morning were you happy? Were you disappointed? I remember as a teenager I every year that I was able to drive I would look on the tree or under the tree or around the room somewhere cuz I was sure that my parents had bought me a car.
That was a no. Never got a car,
you know. And we figured out a way to deal with the not having disappointment over the gifts under our tree.
We did.
Yeah. We figured out how to deal with it. We don't. You and me.
Oh, we did.
Cuz we don't give gifts to each other.
We don't. And some of you are going, "What?" but truly, there's nothing that we need.
No.
and I think I have PTSD from when Jimmy and I were engaged and he bought me it was the most hideous sweater set I've ever seen or will ever see. And I think the idea of you buying me a sweater set just it I can't get rid of it.
No, I know you can't. It's been 50 plus years and you still can't get rid of it.
I can't. It was Hunter Green. Oh my gosh, it was so outstanding. Yeah. British race.
Well, that and then our first year of marriage, this was also fun. Jimmy got me a dish drainer.
No, not just any dish. A wooden dish drainer. that was like would last forever.
Yeah. Well, it did. It did. I wanted that thing to just rot away, but it did not. But so disappointment. sometimes you're excited. You get something that you didn't expect.
Yeah. So, but then there's the other side of this. we've turned Christmas into and there's nothing wrong with this. We give gifts to those we love and we want to say something special and that. but that's not really what Christmas is all about.
No, it's not. Let me read to you from Lukeapter 2 in the NLT version. At that time, the Roman Emperor Augustus decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for the census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from a village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who is now expecting a child. And while they were there, the time came. We talked about time last week. The time came for her baby to be born. And she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no lodging available for them. That was a That's what Christmas is about.
Yeah. And so here's the question that we want you to ponder as you listen to this, whether it's on Christmas Day or some other time. what impact does Christ have on your Christmas celebration?
And we're not trying to lay a guilt trip on you by any means, but h have you ever passed beyond Christmas and had maybe a time of reflection about the day about, you know, maybe you're listening to this a few days after Christmas and you if you honestly evaluate your day, maybe everybody had a good time and there was paper everywhere and people were exced about their gifts. But did Jesus enter into that celebration at all?
Yeah, because it's the same question that we'll ask ourselves as we reflect on this. And in what ways did Christ enter in? We will hopefully will en enjoyed celebrating with family. And that's there's nothing wrong with that. I find every Christmas that there's a growing number of phone calls or text messages that we send to family and friends that we're not with on that on Christmas day to say, "Hey, merry Christmas. Hope you had a great day." I'm very careful to be sure that we've included the people that are important to us in those phone calls, in those text messages. I want to be just as concerned that I've included Christ in the celebration that we had. It's his birthday.
It is his birthday. And we are to be celebrating the fact that God came in the flesh through his son Jesus and came to set us free. and we hope that on this day or the days beyond it that you will have remembered or will remember today as you listen to this that Jesus is Christmas. It's God incarnate.
Yeah. And there are all kinds of ways you can do that. All kinds of ways you can find your You know, one of my favorite things to do at Christmas is when everyone else is in bed or everyone else has gone to bed or gone home or whatever is to just spend some quiet time reflecting on what Christ has done for me. it can be everything and anything that you do that would include him in your celebration. So we trust and pray that it's a wonderful Christmas for you and we thank you for listening to us.