Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot, but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville – did not. The Grinch hated Christmas – the whole Christmas season. Now, please don’t ask why; no one quite knows the reason. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. Or it could be that his head wasn’t screwed on just right. But I think that the most likely reason of all… may have been that his heart was two sizes too small. But, whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes, he stood there on Christmas Eve hating the Whos. Staring down from his cave, with a sour grinchy frown, at the warm, lighted windows below in their town. For he knew that every Who down in Whoville beneath was busy now, hanging a holly who wreath.
You know the story.
You know the movie.
The Grinch hated Christmas and decided that he must stop Christmas from coming.
This year, it seems like almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. Riots, elections, racial strife, and of course, COVID. Even the Grinch couldn’t have dreamed up a better scheme to stop Christmas.
But, it’s Christmas anyway. Regardless of what else is going on in the world around us, Christmas still arrives. Once a year we are reminded that Jesus was born, the light of the world came into the darkness to bring hope.
This year of all years, we need the light of hope. We need the light of Christ. So, regardless of what you have going on in your personal life and what we have going on collectively this year, I want you to know, It’s Christmas Anyway.
Because it is Christmas there is hope. Because Jesus was born, you can walk in the light. Because Jesus was born, you can live with joy. Because Jesus was born, you can know peace.
I don’t know think there is a real Grinch who wants to stop Christmas from coming, but I know there is a real devil who sows discord, destroys peace, and would rob you of your hope.
In the bleak, cold, dark days of this COVID winter, he is a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).
But, he can’t stop Christmas. He tried.
And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.
Satan is the great dragon of Revelation 12. He couldn’t stop the first Christmas. And even when he succeeded in finally killing the child, the dragon couldn’t stop the resurrection. He is a defeated foe.
He is a lion seeking someone to devour, but the Lion of Judah is the King. In this dark December, when the prowling lion growls at the door, listen closely. There is hope. The Lion of Judah roars from on high. The King is still on his throne.
So, this will be a Christmas like none other. But not the first hard Christmas the world has known and not the last. But, it’s Christmas anyway, and that is enough for me.
Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash
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