These days before Christmas can find us totally engulfed in shopping and decorating and writing out Christmas cards. Oh, and then there’s the baking and the wrapping of gifts. How could I forget the office parties, the visiting of friends and family, the gift swapping, the trips to the post office……

God rest ye merry gentlemen.

Yet I am being called, wooed if you will, to rest. And He bids me, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29). Perhaps it is when I am so joined into the activities that need not be, I am wrongly yoked. Perhaps I need to take off the yoke of activity and become yoked solely with Him. It is as I am still before Him that I will find rest. Interesting word, ‘rest’ — I discovered that it means that which is good, profitable, easy to use or bear (New Testament Lexical Aids).

Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day.

I wonder how often in the midst of the busyness, the chaos of this month, I will need this reminder. May I hear the angels words, often and loudly, as they declared, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11). I want to remember. Lord, help us to remember!

To save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.

Gone astray? Yes, “We all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” (Isaiah 53:6). May He save me from straying from the meaning that is rich in these days of anticipation. May I remember that He is the One that keeps my life on His charted path.

Tidings of comfort and joy.

It is as I remember the purpose, the point, the meaning of this Day, I find that I receive both comfort and joy. Odd combination, don’t you think? Yet to be comforted and not have joy almost seems like you have been shorted. Our God brings the comfort and goes beyond…He deposits joy into our lives as well. “I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.” (Jeremiah 31:13b). He truly does bring both to our lives. Circumstances may still be the same but our joy is not found in that which is happening but in His being with us. Among us. Now in us. “You have turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.” (Psalm 30:11).

Yes, it is as we take time to rest our souls that we remember. It is in the remembering that we are saved from the doing. And it is in the saving that we find the comfort and joy of this season. For it is then that we remember Christ was born on Christmas day.

God rest you merry gentlemen.

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