A Christmas Invitation for You!

"So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger" (Luke 2:16)

The popular Christmas carol O Come, All Ye Faithful was originally written in Latin as Adeste Fideles by a man known as John of Reading in the 1300's, beloved. It is commonly attributed, however, to an Englishman named John Francis Wade. Wade fled to France in the 1700's after the Second Jacobite uprising was put down. As a Catholic layman he lived the rest of his life with other exiled English Catholics, teaching music and working on church music for private use. In 1841 Rev. Frederick Oakley, a Catholic priest, worked on the current translation that we know as O Come, All Ye Faithful.

As we sing this time-honored and beloved Christmas carol at this season, I cannot help but note within its words a wonderful "invitation" for each one of us! Consider first that it assumes the need to make a decision as found in the word "come." We do not celebrate Christmas without being transformed by it, then, and becoming the better for it!

Note next that the invitation is specifically extended to people of faith. The word "faithful" implies inherently that those who do "come" are responding in true faith. They become the "faith-filled"! And the word also implies just as strongly that their coming is followed by a changed lifestyle. These become the "faithful"!

Also, those responding to this Christmas invitation are by nature those who are "joyful" - the joy that is Jesus filling our hearts and lives. Not only are we joyful but we are also "triumphant" - in Christ having overcome the world. We live in joy and we walk in victory! Such living cannot help but catch the eye of this unsaved world.

We as invitees are further challenged in our responding to approach and "behold" Jesus, God's greatest gift. All of Christmas, then, is to be focused upon God's only begotten Son and His advent. He is to be the central point around which all Christmas celebration revolves!

And as we behold Him, what more natural outcome than that we "adore" Him in heartfelt worship! So Christmas is also about worshiping Jesus Christ the Lord. We come in faith as the faithful, we come with joyful hearts and triumphant spirits, we focus all of our attention upon Him, and we adore Him for being our Savior and Lord.

Anything less in our manner at this season, beloved, is to miss the point of Christmas altogether. We simply must respond to God's gracious invitation to "come" and to "behold" and to "adore" the One without whom there simply would not be a Christmas season. May God bless you and yours with a truly Christ-honoring, joyful Christmas celebration! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Ron