It's Christmas time

Oh how I love Christmas! The cold crisp air, fuzzy warm socks, fireplace roaring,stockings hung, hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows with a peppermint stick dipped in it, snuggling with loved ones, elf on the shelf, Christmas movies 24/7 on the Hallmark channel, and driving around and looking at all the beautiful Christmas lights, while listening to Christmas songs! It makes my heart so happy! It makes me feel like a kid all over again! I could go on.... waking up Christmas morning and watching my children enjoy opening gifts, making a special breakfast afterwards and traveling here and there to spend time with all of our family and friends. All of this stuff is so great! But that's not what Christmas is all about, is it? Somewhere in the Santa shuffle, we tend to lose site of why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. The signs that people hang up that says "Keep Christ in Christmas." I have to embarrassingly confess that it kind of got on my nerves, because I saw how people that weren't followers of Jesus reacted to it when they saw it. I thought, to an unbeliever, this could give them an excuse to roll their eyes at us religious folk because we were being too religious about it. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the meaning of the saying. I just was concerned that to an unbeliever it would seem just "religious" and not really impactful to them. This was until something was said to me. I was at a Christmas parade, and someone said to me..."what does that mean...Keep Christ in Christmas?" I totally brushed it off, trying not to be too religious, and didn't really respond to it. The Lord brought immediate conviction. Oh my heart! I could feel that I had grieved God's heart. Christmas is about Him! It is our Lord and Savior's birthday. It is that moment in time that God came to earth in the form of a baby to live as we did. It is the absolute most miraculous thing that has ever happened on this earth! It's not just an inspiring story of something that happened long ago. It was the moment that changed our future. Without this moment we wouldn't have Easter and Jesus dying on the cross for our sins....the whole reason we will be able to spend eternity in Heaven. Because of this moment, I am able to be forgiven and live a changed life for His glory! Without this moment, Aaron and I wouldn't be adopting a baby from across the world. You see almost 11 years ago, God changed my life. He came into my heart and changed me. And in that moment, He gave me His heart! Thank goodness, because I can say that without Him, this heart of mine would not be a pretty one :)
So towards the end of the parade, Santa drove past on his float, and as I was enjoying watching Santa and all the kids getting so excited, (which is fun to watch) with God's grace and gentle conviction, I became reminded of how glorious Jesus is and just how much He deserves being acknowledged on the day of his birth! I wanted to be excited about Him, like these children were excited about Santa. He, also in His very gentle way showed me His heart for Christmas and for those that don't have what we get to experience on Christmas day. Living in America we are beyond blessed. It is a blessing to be able to enjoy all these things. We are blessed so that we can bless others that aren't as fortunate. We have to be God's hands and feet. He is relying on us to be that helping hand to someone in need. He needs us to grasp His heart so that we can show others how great He is, and how much He loves them and cares about their needs. It's not about us doing something nice for someone else, it's about us having the heart of a great a glorious God and it hurting so much to see others in need, that we go and be Christ to them! I just want to inspire my readers to keep Christ in Christmas this year. Worship Him and celebrate His first coming to Earth, and ask Him what He wants you to do this year for someone in need...whether that be for a child all across the other side of the world, or for a family that lives right down the road from you, go and be Jesus to them. Go impact one life! And while being Santa is fun, don't let him upstage our King!