Wrecking call...

Everyone loves Christmas.  Joyful music.  Chestnuts roasting o'er the open fire of our minds, if not our actual fireplace inserts.  The bell ringers clanging, the feel good gifts and parties and new clothes and toys and goodies.  The cookies and treats and egg nog.  The lutefisk and lefse, or whatever ethnic specialties you embrace, bringing loved ones together from near and far.  It is a season of joy and optimism for most, colorful, festive and fun.

Most people think of Christmas as the highlight of their year.  It is the ultimate holiday, a week of non-stop celebrating.  To prepare, we tear down our usual decorations, and our usual barriers, and we embrace the change of seasons.  We put up our special ornaments, raise the tree, hug a co-worker or friend.  Even snow seems less cold and more inviting in the rosy glow of the lights and bells.

But as Christians, we should be mindful that Christmas is only the beginning of the story, with the most important part yet to come.  Christ was called, not to live in the nativity, but to die at the cross in order to bring salvation to all who accept him.

We too have been called to sacrifice.  The old sinful nature we cling to must be destroyed, like a wrecking ball smashing a building, shattering it into a million pieces which cannot be reconstructed.  We must be reborn into a new life in Christ, fastening our eyes and our faith on the one who led us to the cross and our salvation.

We read in Galations 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

In this season of cheer and goodwill, we should enjoy the festivities and celebrate the happy news that the Savior was born.  But we cannot linger in the frivolity, because the story continues.  The purpose of his life was his ultimate death, because it is upon that cross that our only hope can be found.  Without the baby in the manger, there would have been no man on the cross.  We cannot separate one from the other, just as no one can separate us from the love of God because of what Jesus did with his life and his death and resurrection.

God has called you to die with him, so that you can be raised up in him by his grace.  The lullaby is the first verse of this greatest story ever told, and the ending is yet to come.