Second Week of Advent: Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Second Week of Advent: Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Yesterday’s devotion asserted that, like the Grinch, we have a heart problem. Where’s the evidence of that, though? The evidence comes in two layers. The first has to do with the central message of the 1966 animated TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas. At its core, this TV special is very similar to the message of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Both shows are criticisms of the over-commercialization of Christmas. The Grinch thinks that he can stop Christmas from coming by stealing all of the trappings of Christmas from the Whos in Whoville. He learns, though, that Christmas isn’t about the trappings just as Charlie Brown did.

In that regard, we, too, are always in danger of being Grinch-y. When the focus of Christmastide is centered on the trappings of the season we find that the holiday seems a bit empty and that we feel more stressed, rushed, and hurried than anything else. The over-commercialization of Christmas is always a temptation for us to put the wrong focus on the holiday. We overcome that temptation by keeping the Christ-child front and center of our preparations. Daily Bible readings and devotions are a huge help in this.

But our heart problem runs much deeper than just a wrong focus on the season. Our heart problem is revealed in the ways that we treat others. We dislike, even hate, some people; choose not to socialize with some folks for …. (add your excuse here); spread gossip about others; don’t give proper respect and honor to the authorities over us; we are jealous of what others have (whether we show it outwardly or not); we covet; we become quite angry with some people (often with those we say we love the most). Our words, actions, and our inner thoughts show that, like the Grinch, we do indeed have a heart problem.

Apart from God, our hearts are dead in sin. Like a stone, they have no spiritual life in them. But it was just that condition that prompted God to send His Son to become one of us. The Son of God became a human being in the person of Jesus so that He could deal with the sin that fills our hearts. He came to suffer the punishment of death that was due us, and so to take away our sin. Through His life, death, and resurrection our sins have been forgiven and taken away. Faith that this is so for you (insert name here) brings that forgiveness to us individually. Our unbelieving hearts are converted to believing hearts by the action of the Holy Spirit working through the Word and Sacraments.

Our fundamental problem as human beings is that we have hearts of stone (unbelief). God’s solution is to save us through Jesus and to give us hearts of flesh (belief). Therefore, Christmas is a reason for celebration because it observes the birth of our Savior who has made all of this possible.

Prayer: Dear God, I thank you for having had mercy on me and replacing my heart of stone with a heart of flesh. May it always beat with the gladness born by thanksgiving for all that you have done for me in Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen.