Somebody came up with this idea: A Christmas Card for Employees
You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I’m telling you why...
It won’t look good on your personnel record.
On a December day back in 1903 at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright, after numerous failures to fly a heavier-than-air machine, made amazing history. They achieved something that no man had ever done before. Ecstatic, they sent a telegram to their sister Katherine: “We have actually flown 852 feet. Will be home for Christmas.”
Overjoyed, Katherine ran down to the local newspaper and pushed the telegram – the greatest news story of the new century – into the hand of the editor. After reading it, he smiled and said, “Well, well! How nice the boys will be home for Christmas.”
Sometimes our focus goes out of whack. The most important thing that is happening in front of us yet our eyes, heart and mind are preoccupied with something else. In other words, we miss the main thing.
Do you know that this is what happened during the first Christmas?
The religious people of Christ’s day who were actually anticipating his coming as their Messiah failed totally to recognize him – and ironically had him crucified – because he didn’t come and didn’t operate in the way they expected him to.
How sad it is that so many miss the full meaning of Christmas in that they have never thanked Jesus for dying for their sins, nor accepted the most profound and precious Christmas gift ever given... the gift of the Savior and his pardon for all their sins and his gift of eternal life.
For you and I, the best suggestion is to understand what the real significance of Christmas is. Let me present it to you based on the words from another Christmas card:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Notice this, as a child, He was born of a virgin, as a son, He was given. The celebration is that the Savior took on humanity and is born but the eternal Sonship with God the Father and the Spirit could never be born.
The manger gave way to the cross many years later when He gave His life for us so that we may be saved. And this is why the real meaning of Christmas is that the Savior has come but the real meaning of Christianity is not the manger but the empty tomb.
No, it’s not about the gifts and the parties, it’s not about cash flow, it’s not about stocks inventory and it’s not about our failing economy. It’s all about having the Prince of Peace reign in our hearts so that we may spend the rest of eternity with Him. Then and only then do we enjoy Christmas.
And as I present them to you, treat this day’s message as if it were a Christmas card, I am giving you. So please listen very carefully.
Borrowing the words from an anonymous source I would love to present this as a Christmas Card for you:
May the Christmas PRESENTS remind us of God’s greatest GIFT – His only begotten Son.
May the Christmas CANDLES remind us of Him who is the LIGHT of the world.
May Christmas TREE remind us of another TREE on which He died for us.
May the Christmas FEAST remind us of Him who is the BREAD OF LIFE.
May the Christmas CAROLS remind us of His glad tidings which we are to proclaim to all mankind!
May the Christmas season remind us in every way of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
This is going to be a very strange Christmas celebration we will be having. I am not even allowed to do Christmas shopping for two reasons:
1. My kids would not allow me.
2. The malls would not permit me.
But even though the way we celebrate Christmas may not be the same the Christmas message is still the same. It does not change.
Christ came so that in Him and through Him based on His finished work on the cross, enabled you and me to be reconciled with God who loves us and Who gave His Son for us. Love reconciles even enemies. A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!!!
(Connect with Francis Kong at www.facebook.com/franciskong2. Or listen to “Business Matters” Monday to Friday
8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. over 98.7 dzFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch,’ the classical music station.)