Tuesday, January 2, 2006
Ninth Christmas Day
Psalm 118:1 O give thanks unto the Lord.
THANK YOU
When I was a youngster, in the week or two after December 25th people would ask me, "What did you get for Christmas?" My mother asked me, "Have you written your thank-yous yet?" In this age of e-mail, cell phones, and instant communication, is the written thank-you note for a gift becoming a thing of the past? Good manners aside, real gratitude is neither a matter of culture or family custom -- and thanks uncommunicated is something short of real thankfulness.
This, of course, is especially true where God's gifts are concerned. Don't you find each year's Christmas gifts to be another set of emphatic reminders that nothing can compare with the original Gift of the heavenly Father to us -- His own dear Son?
Even if we follow the lead of so many in our country and start celebrating Christmas before the 25th, we still find ourselves with a "not-enough-time" problem. The period between Christmas Eve and Epiphany (January 6), the traditional "Twelve Days of Christmas", are truly not enough time to review the deep meaning of God-made-man and to render any kind of satisfactory thanks to the Lord.
But Christmas is no time for feeling guilty. The Christ-child not only forgives our appreciation failures, He extends our time-to-give-thanks through all eternity.
In the meantime, let us do the best we can in the here and now. When we have opportunity to show our thankfulness for His redeeming love in what we say and do, may the Savior never find us unaccounted for. May He never ask regarding us: "Where are the nine?" (Luke 17:17)
Were this Child for us not born,
We should all be lost, forlorn,
No true hope possessing.
Dear Lord Jesus, thanks to Thee
Now and through eternity.
