Keeping Christmas

Keeping Christmas

Merry Christmas

Are you looking for Christmas inspiration? Devotional reading to warm your heart on this special day? Here are few posts that might do the trick. Read and be blessed. I hope you keep Christmas in your heart all of your days!

1) The Holy Night Changed Everything

2) A Legend to move Your Heart

3) Why Christmas Matters

4) Why Was Jesus Born?

“There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day,
and that is, keeping Christmas.

Are you willing…
to forget what you have done for other people,
and to remember what other people have done for you;

     to ignore what the world owes you,
and to think what you owe the world;

     to put your rights in the background,
and your duties in the middle distance,
and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground;

     to see that men and women are just as real as you are,
and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy;

     to own up to the fact that probably the only good reason
for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life,
but what you are going to give to life;

     to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe,
and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds
of happiness—

Are you willing to do these things even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to stoop down and consider
the needs and desires of little children;

     to remember the weakness and loneliness of people growing old;

     to stop asking how much your friends love you,
and ask yourself whether you love them enough;

     to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear in their hearts;

     to try to understand what those who live in the same home with you
really want, without waiting for them to tell you;

     to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke,
and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you;

     to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your
kindly feelings
with the gate open—

Are you willing to do these things, even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world—
stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death—
and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem
nineteen hundred years ago
is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love?

Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you can keep it for a day, why not always? But you can never keep it alone.”

~ Henry Van Dyke 

At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:
Glory to God in the heavenly heights,

Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told! 
(Luke 2:13-20, MSG)

Now it’s your turn. Let loose, glorify and praise God for everything!

 

Gracious God,
We praise you for becoming one of us
so we could be one with you.
Enable us to embrace your grace
every day of our lives.
In Jesus’ precious name,
Amen

Q4U: How do you celebrate Christmas? How do you let loose and glorify God? How do you keep Christmas every day?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you praise God for Christmas blessings! Merry Christmas, my friends!

Image courtesy of Junny Cruz.

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