Second Week of Advent: Thursday, December 12, 2024

Second Week of Advent: Thursday, December 12, 2024

The Grinch made off with all of the Christmas decorations, presents, wreaths, trees, and special foods in Whoville. On his way back to his cave he stopped on his mountain side to listen to the crying and wailing of the Whos as they woke up on Christmas morning to discover that Christmas wasn’t coming that year. He held his hand to his ear and listened intently.

He heard a sound alright, but it wasn’t the sound of crying and sadness, it was the sound of singing and gladness. He hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming at all. It came without all the presents and trappings. Somehow or other it came just the same. Then, we’re told, something occurred to the Grinch that he hadn’t thought of before. Perhaps Christmas wasn’t something you bought at a store. Maybe Christmas meant “a little bit more.”

Then the true meaning of Christmas dawned on him and something happened on that day that the Whos in Whoville considered a miracle: The Grinch’s heart grew three sizes that day. Filled with renewed energy and enthusiasm he sleighed into town returning the presents and decorations he’d stolen. And the Whos, well the Whos welcome him gladly to their Who Christmas feast and let the Grinch of all people carve the Who Roasted Beast. The End.

The cartoon never really tells us the true meaning of Christmas. It implies that it is found in community and generosity. But we know that it’s something more pointed than that. But this Christmas classic is right about the transformative power of Christmas’s true meaning. When we keep Christ at the center then there really is a reason for joy, peace, and hope.

God has promised through the prophet Ezekiel, ““I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” That’s a fancy way of saying that one day people that are not His people will become His people and He will be their God for eternity, blessing them with every good thing.

That promise was kept for humanity when Christ came; it was kept for you individually when you came to faith in Jesus as your Savior. Rejoice! God is your’s and you are God’s!

Prayer: Thank you dear Lord for bringing me to faith in Jesus, my Savior! Let the knowledge that you sent him to save me because you love me cause me to be filled with peace and deep-seated joy always. Amen.