A new year - the same hope

 It is almost time to think about 2021.  I say almost because we are not quite through Christmas.  But the new year is just around the corner, and for many, it cannot come too soon.  I have heard a lot of frustration and angst about 2020 and for good reason - a pandemic, a lot of loss and pain suffered by individuals that I know, a lot of loneliness and isolation.  And in the midst of all of that we want to leave and exit and get to something new and better.

I find it interesting that people hope for a better new year simply because it is a new year.  There is no magic that happens on December 31st at 11:59 that makes 2021 miraculously better.  There will be new and different challenges.  There will be new frustrations and new pain.  And yet there is hope.  Ironically it is the same hope that is available now and has been for all of 2020.  The hope is in Jesus.  And Jesus never changes.  So place your hope in something that does not change.  Place your hope in something that cannot and will not go away.  Put your hope in the new year in Jesus Christ and in Him alone.  And if you do this, you will not be disappointed.  You will still have pain, you may still suffer, but you will not be disappointed because Jesus does not fail.  

Christmas is not a season

 Every year, sometime after Thanksgiving and usually before Black Friday - which is admittedly a short window - I hear the expression "Christmas Season".  I do really understand what people mean by this and in many respects, I can concede that this is meaningful language.  People do think about Christmas more during the weeks between thanksgiving and Christmas.  Even I talk about the season.  We have cute Christian expressions like "Jesus is the Reason for the Season."  And yet as I was thinking about this I wonder if we do more harm than good when we think like this.  

For instance, if Christmas is really a season, then at some point it is over.  It might be over for you on the 26th of December.  Or maybe when they stop playing Christmas carols on your favorite station.  Or perhaps when you take your lights down.  But whenever that moment is, it is over.  A season ends.  Is this how we want to think of the coming of Christ?   Yes, he ascended, but the rule and reign that started when the angels announced the birth of a king is ongoing and permanent.  That which started in the nativity has no end.  The Scriptures even remind us of this in passages that we often quote during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and seem to forget about until the next year.  

Or what about the Bible - do the passages on Christmas only have meaning for Christmas, or is the Word of God living and active and useful for the entirety of the year - does the prophecy of the coming of Christ matter only for four weeks, or does it matter year round?

I will not belabor the point but I think that we ought to remind ourselves that the message of Christmas is not a message that is to be limited to a time frame during the course of any year.  It is timeless and eternal and meant to be the center of our identity as followers of the one who came to die and be raised for our justification.  Christmas is a year long celebration of who we are in Christ!  So celebrate - even after the 26th of December!