seasons

We have entered the Christmas season, a time when good people everywhere use the birthday of Jesus to expect gifts.  Everyone has their own customs and traditions, it’s generally a beautiful season.  The music, the lights, the trees and fairies running around in red suits with fake beards.  Many have voted Jesus out of the celebration and put Santa Claus in His place.  Santa is universally accepted because he is a non-denominational character that doesn’t exist, so he is no threat to anyone’s pet belief.
 
Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
 
The word season means an appointed occasion, God provides mankind with annual times of celebration.  Seasons offer us opportunities to stop and reflect on what God has   done and how it is intended to affect our lives.  The Christmas season will come and go, and most folks won’t even consider the birth of Jesus!  Some will see a nativity scene and for a brief moment they will acknowledge a baby named Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  But there are a few folks who will press into the “Spirit” of Christmas.  They will ponder with great reverence how God became a man child and was born of a virgin.  The music, the lights, family and food will become more than a tradition, they are all a part of the reason for the season.
 
Ecclesiastes 3:2 There is a time to be born and a time to die.
 
The birth of Jesus is the reason for the season and when He died His death gave us a new season.  The season of His life is what ministers hope to all men.  I had a friend that loved Christmas and Easter, he loved getting and giving gifts at Christmas and he loved baking a ham for Easter.  My friend was an ordained atheist, he loved all the symbols and props of the season but not the One who created them!  God has a purpose and a reason for everything He does, the humble can readily pick it out.  The heathen have no interest in God or what He has “allegedly” done, they hold to their own beliefs.  The most important thing they fail to understand is how much God loves them.
 
Proverbs 15:23 A man has joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good it is.
 
During the life of Jesus He created many supernatural events, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Passover and His resurrection from the dead to name a few.  Every event He created had a corresponding message that is pertinent for our lives.  The birth of Jesus gives us a word spoken in due season, He sent His Son Jesus so we would have someone reliable to put our hope in.  The message of Christmas is very simple but profound, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.  The true meaning of Christmas is obscured by the traditions of men, but men of good will can see beyond the artificial lights and perfectly wrapped gifts.  The world has a term they call the “Christmas Hangover”, basically they had a lot of fun and now they have to pay for it.  They bought too many gifts, too many office parties, too much company and no concrete reason for any of it.  Christmas season never ends for the believer, it is a word in season that they cherish every day.  Merry Christmas   

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