Cracking the December Code

Shopping; cooking; preparing for guests; attending Christmas programs; eating; parties; a few days off; some traveling; wrapping and unwrapping gifts; tolerating guests; returning gifts; and a little more after Christmas shopping – when all of these activities are placed in the same month, we call that month December. Does the thought of that much varied activity excite you or depress you? Does it seem more like chaos or celebration to you? I believe that the answers to these questions are found only when we use the right key to crack the code of all those activities. Most of us played with some type of code puzzles when we were children. The codes were fairly simple – a certain shape might represent a certain letter of the alphabet or a number might be used to stand in the place of the letters. Once you knew the code, you could solve the puzzle.

So what is the key to cracking December’s code? The answer is so obvious that we just miss it. We look at the activities and obligations that pack our calendars allowing us to see that the only possible solution to the puzzle is chaos. If shopping is about buying gifts we can’t afford for people we don’t like; if Christmas programs are produced just because church members expect it; and if family is about burden instead of love, then chaos is the answer. But I want something far different than chaos in December. I want to see Mary and Joseph journey to Bethlehem. I want to see them give birth to Jesus in the stable. I want to hear the angels sing praise in the heavens as they announce the gift of God’s love. The key to December’s puzzle for me is Jesus. When I use Him as the key, the solution to the puzzle is celebration. Celebration enables me to purchase a gift to help express the love that Christ has given me for another person. The

Christmas programs become a means for conveying the message of God’s love to a world that still needs to receive His gift to them. Family becomes that group of people that I am most closely tied to, responsible for, and loved by. How easy it is to love them in return! This December I am praying that you as individuals and the churches of Denton Baptist Association will find their lives and activities filled with celebration – celebration of the gift of God’s love to us. I am praying that chaos will be replaced with purpose and meaning as we share the love that God has given to us in His Son with our families, our communities, and our world.