Ink the Day

 

A giant X, heart, circle, sticker, or star might mark the day on the calendar as special. For months, we look forward to the day. We think of it as extraordinary, festive, and even a bit magical. A particular event in which to save up money, spend frivolously on, and sometimes go into debt.

We plan, probe, search, investigate, shop, and select. While we wait, we clean, spruce up, and decorate. We stock our shelves with things we don’t normally consume and pick the freshest ingredients.

As the days march closer, excitement mounts, and we become more cheerful. Pleasantries come quickly out of our mouths to our loved ones and strangers alike. The duties and activities are scratched off the multiple lists.

The silver is polished, the best dishes are pulled out, packages are wrapped, and long lines are anticipated and even embraced. A flurry of activity to get everything perfect is crammed into a few days before.

Perfectly chopped, grated, and arranged food items are presented exquisitely in beautiful dishes. The house smells divine as all who gather together take their places around a large decorated table. A fire crackles in the nearby fireplace, creating a cozy environment.

After bellies are full, the gifts opened, and a semblance of order returns, we sit sipping a warm drink and think over the day.

All for whom? Done for what?

This day, this event, points back over two-thousand years to the One for which it started.

But did we take time to celebrate Him?

It’s His birthday. His day, for us to remember and to mark off the calendar.

We displayed His apparent ‘likeness’ in a nativity. We sang songs about His birth and the amazing players and events around His arrival. We peered at the night sky to see the appearance of a bright star.

But did it lead us to Him?

Did we thank Him?

Celebrate Him?

Worship Him?

We fussed, but did we fuss over the Savior of the World?

We planned and purchased, but did we rest in Him, daily walk with Him, and accept His gift of eternal life?

The specially marked day came and went. But He is still here, waiting for us to focus our attention and time on Him. Did we forget He is the reason for this day inked on our calendar, this day named after Him—Christmas?

Luke 1:35 (NLT) ~ The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most high will overshadow you. so the baby to be born will be holy, and will be called the Son of God.”

Luke 19:10 (NLT) ~ The Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.

John 3:16 (NKJV) ~ For God so Loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.