It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Decorating our homes with the colors and trappings of Christmas is a tradition many of us
dutifully embrace. Within the boxes from the garage, attic, basement hauled up right after
Thanksgiving are visual reminders of a season filled with joy, hope, with church and familyfilled
activity. As the decorations are set in place, the transformation becomes so pronounced, a
family member may walk into a room singing the old carol, “It’s beginning to look a lot like
Christmas”.
My wife Lori was asked by Janice Bilden if she would be willing to open the parsonage to the
Tour of Homes put on by the Northwood cancer support group. The idea is to decorate your
home for Christmas and invite the community to come and tour your house in all it’s Christmas
glory. Lori has more simple tastes in decorating and shared with Janice how she didn’t know if
anyone would want to tour a home in her simple decorating ways. Janice responded with words
that made her leap to her feet – “We can get some ladies from the church together and we’ll
help you decorate.” Now Lori was pumped. This was going to be fun! Lori got out all her
Christmas stuff and six gals from the church came over one Friday with boxes of their Christmas
stuff and together they spent the day putting all this Christmas stuff on the walls, windows,
floors, fixtures, the mantel and banister … everywhere. It’s beautiful.
The Holiday Tour of Homes is on the 5th from 2-5pm … come on over and check out
what the ladies have done to the parsonage.
Of course, all this decor festivity should lead us far beyond the visual beauty and warm feelings
of a home decorated in it’s Christmas glory. Christmas, as it’s name implies, is a celebration of
Christ who emptied His Glory to be with us.
God took on flesh, entered our planet on a mission to offer all people the one time opportunity to
trade our life for His. At Christmas, Jesus offered Himself as a trade. The trade has been
called, The Great Exchange. Jesus would take our place in life and trade or exchange our lives
for His. In Isaiah we read how Jesus took our sins on Himself.
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him
stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we
have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4–6)
In the ‘great exchange’, Jesus not only took our sins to a cross but He then replaced them with
His own goodness and righteousness.
“For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in
exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us!” (2 Corinthians 5:21 TLB)
In other words, when Jesus came at Christmas time, it was to take out our sins and pour into us
Himself. I can hear the angels singing — “For unto you is born … a Savior” (Luke 2:11) Or
as my good friend Linus would say – “This was what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.”
So when you walk into a home all decorated with Christmas glory and start humming to yourself,
‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’, may this trigger the reminder of the much greater
glory and greater transformation in which He has remade our lives into one of glory whereby He
exchanged our sin for His righteousness.
Here’s a better song to set to tune :
Joy to the World the Lord is Come.
Or if you’re in a more quiet place:
O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
Pastor Mark
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