Day 12. It didn't exist? Say what?

When I was a kid my Grandpa Saathoff showed me a list he'd brought home from his recent high school reunion. At the top of the list was the title "Things that didn't exist when we graduated"...I don't remember how many items were on the list but the one item that has stuck with me all these years later was number 5: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer hadn't been invented.  As I read those words I was completely in shock; it had never occurred to me that there had ever been a Christmas season without Rudolph, I mean the two go hand in hand!!!

As I think about the Christmas story, about the birth of Jesus, about the people that lived during that time I have suddenly found myself in a similar place of shock--there was a time when "christmas" didn't exist. I'll just let that sink in for a moment...Ok, maybe you have already come to that realization and maybe it seems silly for that to be a shocker me, but it is. It's a shocker because just as I assumed Rudolph had always been around, I also tend to assume Christmas has always been around--you know, the tree, the presents, the hustle and bustle of December, you know, Christmas. Sure the adult, logical, part of us KNOWS better, but do we pause give it the weight it deserves?

I encourage you, as you move through the remainder days of this December, to pause and reflect on the time when Christmas didn't exist--because Christ hadn't yet come. I encourage you to think about the FAITH those people showed, I encourage you to remember we are blessed because we know the end of the story much like we can sing Rudolph without really thinking about it. I encourage you see the peace God has granted you just simply being you--born when you were, to a time when Christmas exists, to a time when we can learn about Jesus, the very real Messiah that came so that you may have eternal peace.

We take a lot of things for granted, may we never take Christmas for granted.