Get ready. Get set. GO!

If you haven’t noticed, it’s only 25 days away. Are you ready? Are you set? You may have been going for a week now. And you keep wondering when the roller coaster (or it may be a merry-go-round) is going to stop so you can get off.

Well, I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news? It’s not going to stop. Life goes on. And sometimes it goes on and on and on. And in the midst of all that is happening around you, you have to keep going, too.

Christmas is probably the busiest season for a pastor and church. Even vacation Bible school (which is the busiest week of my year every year), is confined to that one week.

We actually had our first Christmas-related worship service this past Sunday evening, and they will continue through Christmas Eve. And that’s not even to mention the parties and the family gatherings and the shopping, and – well, you get the picture.

Why do I allow myself to get so caught up in the rush of Christmas? I know that there are some who would like to forget this altogether, but the meaning and purpose of Christmas is really quite simple.

God chose to break through and enter our world in a brand new way. He became one of us. Immanuel – God with us.

That is the true and only meaning of Christmas. When I choose to allow shopping, gifts, decorations, parties and parades to crowd Jesus out of my Christmas celebration, I have damaged my own relationship with God and have diminished what should be one of the greatest times of the year.

Over the next three and a half weeks you will hear phrases like, "Christmas is for children." While true as far as it goes, it does not go nearly far enough.

Yes, Christmas is for children. But it’s for you and me as well. God stepped into our world, and because of that we know him and live in relationship to him, both now and forever.

Do remember this, too. Jesus was placed in a manger soon after his birth, but he now occupies a throne. He had to go through the cross to arrive there, but he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I pray that you will celebrate the true meaning of the season this year, and for the rest of your life.