Heaven Comes Later

For once I got the wreaths hung BEFORE the snow...we got about three or four inches yesterday. 

If you want perfection or nothing, you are going to wind up with nothing...or at the very least be disappointed or ticked off!  Yet this time of year, many of us (myself included) work too hard to try to pull off a perfect holiday that is rooted in our unrealistic cultural expectations. 

So let me be the first to clue you in.  Your holiday will not be perfect.  My holiday won't be perfect.  Life isn't perfect, or even easy...and God has ordained that Heaven comes later.  So why do we try so hard to have Heaven here?

This Christmas many have lost jobs, there are financial problems.  Maybe some family members are fighting.  There may be health problems, or an empty place at the table due to death or illness.  Many are lonely...some wish that they COULD be lonely if they are stuck in a family filled with strife!  And yet...and yet the angel said to the shepherds...

"Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."  (Luke 2:10-11)

Good tidings of great joy.  That means that this Christmas, in the midst of the hard times so many of us find ourselves stuck in, we can have great joy.  Not in Christmas decorations, or concerts, or holiday meals...or even in family or friends.  Our joy stems from the 'good tidings' of the birth of a Saviour. Not from the perfect Christmas that our culture pushes down our throats, but from...as Mary put it...

"And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation." (Luke 1:50).

Our joy is based on the mercy of God, that loved us enough not to let us rot in our sin.  Period.  That's all, and that's EVERYTHING!

So while I am celebrating the birth of Christ this year, I will not expect the perfect Christmas.  The dogs will probably knock the tree over, and we are still grieving the loss of my husband's father.  Money may not be as plentiful for gifts this year, or I may not get to see many family members that live further away.  Whatever can go wrong, may go wrong.  But whatever it is, it will not ruin my 'great joy'. 

Heaven comes later, folks, but GREAT JOY can be yours today, while you are burning the Christmas cookies or falling off the ladder while decorating the tree.  Great joy!  And that, my friends, is what Christmas is all about!  DLB