The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Yes.  It really is the ‘most wonderful time of the year’!  Family celebrations and holiday gatherings, twinkling lights and familiar carols, excited children filled with anticipation and smiles from people we may not even know — they all make for a season full of joy, peace, hope and love. 

But ‘joy to the world’ doesn’t just happen.  ‘Peace on earth’ doesn’t come about naturally.  The love and hope that the season promises isn’t going to fall from the heavens like snowflakes on a cold winter night.  In order for the holidays to be all that we long for them to be, we need to be conscious of the choices we are making and intentional about the way in which we are celebrating.

Retailers tell us that Christmas is about waiting in line for 7 hours on Thanksgiving night in order to be first in line for that 42 inch TV that is on sale!  They tell us to watch for bargains, to make it possible to buy more things, in order to give more gifts, that will make Christmas all that it is supposed to be.  Oprah tells us to seek out her ‘favorite things.’  Dr. Phil tells us to avoid family discussion about difficult topics.  Martha Steward tells us to make a wreath.  Dr. Oz tells us to stay away from Eggnog.  And our culture as a whole sends out all kinds of additional messages:  put up lights, bake cookies, take a family photo, wrap presents, go to church, send out cards, host a holiday party, plant some paperwhites, and on and on and on.       

I’m exhausted from just thinking about all that I feel like I ‘should’ be doing.

But just as chestnuts don’t roast themselves on an open fire, joy doesn’t come to our world unless we bring it.  Nights don’t silence themselves, nor are they holy unless we make them so.

This year, how ’bout we all stop listening to all the voices around us, and listen instead to the still small voice within?  You know the voice — we all do!  It speaks to us all, all the time; but more often than not, we’re distracted by all those other voices.  But it’s there never the less, and it’s telling us to slow down.  It’s telling us to pause to look at the stars.  It’s telling us not to worry about the perfect tree, or the perfect gift, or the perfect Christmas Eve dinner. 

Instead, that still small voice is calling us to think of others — to drop some coins in a red kettle, to take the kids to a nursing home, or to call that cousin you haven’t spoken to all year.  It’s the voice telling us to laugh loudly and to sing heartily, to cherish our families and to embrace our neighbors, to drive more gently and to tip more generously, to dream, to wish, to dance, and to care.  It’s telling us to DO less, and to simply BE more!

This really can be the most wonderful time of the year, but only if we make it so.  And we can do that by remembering what the season is all about.  And it’s not about gifts, or clothes, or food, or parties.  The season is about peace — peace on earth, and good will for all.  It’s about joy — joy to the world, for God is here. 

This Christmas, keep the focus where it should be.  Don’t be distracted by the voices of those around you, leading you astray.  Instead, listen to the Spirit within, that Holy Spirit of God.  For that is the Spirit of the Season, the Spirit that really can make the end of 2010, the most wonderful time of this year.

            

Holiday Worship at Stone House Presbyterian Church:

Pastor Bob Melone has been married 25 years to Jeanne (“Shan”) Hartzner Melone, and they have four children – Stefan, and his wife Leah, Jacob, who is a junior at Christopher Newport University, and Kirsten, who is a senior at Lafayette High School.  Bob is the organizing pastor of Stone House Presbyterian Church in Williamsburg, VA, and has been serving in that capacity for the past 10 years.  He was ordained in 1986, and has served in two additional churches.  Bob was the Associate Pastor for Youth and Families at First Presbyterian Church in York, PA from 1986-1992, and the Senior Pastor/Head of Staff at First Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Erie, PA from 1992-2000.  He has a BA in International Relations from The American University; a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary; and a Doctorate of Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  Bob loves the beach, Italian food, and living in Williamsburg. 
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