A Glimpse of Starlight

Christmas has come upon us, and with it, that desire for the “Christmas spirit” and yet the disappointing, frustrating, and confusing feeling that we don’t have it.  May this message help restore a bit of joy, peace, and proper focus to the season.

If you just want a simple place to start having joy:

The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal.

When you wonder why can’t be happy in this “most wonderful time of the year”:

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness. 

When you’re searching for an expensive and meaningful gift:

The price of anything is how much life you exchange for it. 

When you look beneath bright lights and wrapped gifts and see suffering around you, and you want to help:

I never ask the wounded person how he feels; I myself become the wounded person. 

When you’re trying to figure out how to love others this season:

It would probably be all right if we’d love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves, but could they stand that much affection? 

When you wish the season would hurry up and be over, because there’s no joy in your life right now and God feels so far away:

The goodness of God is infinitely more wonderful than we will ever be able to comprehend. 

When you’re trying to find that elusive joy, joy, joy:

Somehow, not only for Christmas,
but all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others,
Is the joy that comes back to you.

When you need to be reminded of what this holiday is all about:

This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ.

The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God.

When it’s time to get your priorities straight:

Some businessmen are saying this could be the greatest Christmas ever. I always thought that the first one was.

All the Christmas presents in the world are worth nothing without the presence of Christ.

When you need a reason for awe:

Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.

May you rest amidst the bustle and business of shopping, parties, caroling, and finals and simply rejoice:

Rejoice, that the immortal God is born, so that mortal man may live in eternity.

Rejoice!

{Authors of quotes, from top to bottom: C. S. Lewis, George Orwell, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Unknown, A. W. Tozer, John Greenleaf Whittier, Frank McKibben, C. S. Lewis, Art Fettig, David Jeremiah, C. S. Lewis, John Huss.}