He's Here! Christmas Daybook 1

Merry Christmas, friends! Thank you for joining me for these 12 days of celebration!

For an introduction read this post: Christmastide.

Watch: He's Here - Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd-Jones 

You might also enjoy my all-time favorite video short for Christmas Day: Rozhdestvo (The Nativity) 

Read: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20 (MSG)

Pray: Book of Common Prayer, The Collect for the Feast of the Nativity

O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Do: Savor gift-giving and receiving

{An excerpt from my post Family liturgies for Christmas & my Mama's rule for feasting.}

It seems that, in my lifetime, people have changed their opinions about Christmas gift giving. Maybe Charlie Brown started it, bemoaning commercialism? We join his melancholy lament in our house; we also guard against extreme measures that might on the surface seem wise, even spiritual. Christ taught us to give our possessions to the poor, yes, but He was no pious ascetic, shunning feasts and merrymaking.

Jesus, Himself, showed us how to receive gifts well. Picture him, feet covered with Mary's perfume, delighting in the scent of her costly gift. She shamelessly -- and extravagantly -- gave; Jesus shamelessly received. Judas' super-spiritual nagging that Mary wasted an opportunity to give to the poor couldn't even ruin the moment. Maybe Jesus had learned the joy of receiving, all those years earlier, when men from another country filled his mother's living room with abundance.

As in every other practice for living, Jesus shows us the way to delight in both the giving and the receiving of gifts. We bask in gift-giving at Christmas, not only to remember what Christ modelled the first time He came to earth, but also to remind each other what we anticipate when He comes again. Haven't we been told our future reconciliation with Jesus unveils the greatest Gift Exchange in History? He makes a new Heaven and a New Earth, and we give Him all glory, laud, and honor (including something about crowns)? No matter how spiritual it might seem, fostering guilty consciences by limiting our enjoyment of Christmas does not make us more like Christ.

There is a time for fasting; Christmas is not that time. (read more here)