Stores waste no time in putting out Christmas decorations. Many don’t even wait until Thanksgiving has passed to start the process of guiding their customers toward thinking about Christmas. As you move into the Christmas spirit this month, don’t simply enjoy what looks good. Keep listening and keep looking beyond what you see and hear until you get to the very truth of Christmas.
Imagine that you’ve just arrived on planet earth and don’t know anything about the approaching Christmas season. What if you based your view of Christmas on the following fractured carols children have mistakenly sung?
“Deck the halls with Buddy Holly . . .”
“We three kings of porridge and tar . . .”
“Later on we’ll perspire, as we dream by the fire . . .”
“He’s makin’ a list, chicken and rice . . .”
“Noel, Noel, Barney’s the king of Israel . . .”
“With the jelly toast proclaim . . .”
“Frosty the snowman is a ferret elf, I say . . .”
“Sleep in heavenly peas . . .”
“Oh, what fun it is to ride with one horse, soap, and hay . . .”
“Good tidings we bring to you and your kid . . .”
“O come, froggy faithful . . .”
If all we knew about Christmas was what we saw in stores and on TV, or what we heard, we’d have a skewed and surface view of the season. God wants to move you beyond the surface into the very heart of Christmas this year.
Make a list of what you can do—beginning today—that will keep your focus on Jesus Christ rather than on tinsel, store sales, sprinkled sugar cookies, and midnight shopping sprees. Is there someone in your class or your youth group who’s feeling desperate and alone? Do you have a friend who’s upset because his parents are newly divorced and he can only spend Christmas with one of them? Make time to look around you and focus on the needs of others.
This is an excerpt from: Devos for Teens
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