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Good tidings of great joy

It's Christmas!
At the crack of dawn, I will get ready to go to church. So will my kids. It has never been a time for presents or for a gathering under the tree. Our home looks just the same inside as it did all year through. But the gentle skip in the heart every time my kids heard the word Christmas was almost tangible. Christmas is good tidings of great joy.
Clearly it isn't the colours, the decorations or even the carols that make it special. It is a celebration of life as God saw it! Eternal, sacrificial, abundant, peaceful and joyful.
"Christmas is our festival because we are Christians" my daughter said recently. But on that first Christmas dawn, the shepherds heard the angel sing a different tune. He said, "to all mankind."
Christmas is Christmas for all! It seems it doesn't depend on what one believes. It is like the earth was round even when every soul upon it thought it was flat. The same way, the Messiah came even though His own did not receive Him. Just like God keeps His word even though we forget He said anything at all.
Christmas proves how very accurate Jesus is when He says "my Father is constantly at work." Our delays and impossible situations really are just like the times before Christmas. A silent heaven? A shattered dream, a past that follows and threatens to repeat, oppression, cruelty, meaningless violence, in the midst of it all, every Christmas comes to remind that God keeps His promise. A kingdom of a different kind has been established and those willing to receive it are the inheritors of the good tidings of great joy!

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