Isaiah 9: In Galilee of the Gentiles. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.

During the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my family has always enjoyed watching Christmas themed movies and celebrating with friends.  For us, an opportunity to have a world focused on giving and receiving and thanking the God of Comfort is special.

I am thankful for each of my friends and family. The honor to exchange prayer with you is a blessing.

Yet, one friend belied the missing element of Christmas movies.  Where is the Christmas movie that celebrates an individual connecting with Christ and His love?

• There is connecting with the Bishop, Santa Claus.  http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/bishop-of-myra/   Surely he loved Christ and spread His love.
• There is connecting with others.  Surely some of them are full of the love of Christ.
• There is connecting with ghosts.  Surely some of them lived for Christ.
• There is connecting with the spirit of Christmas.  Surely it is the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ that spawned the spirit of Christmas.
• There are movies about the life of Christ that end with a story but not a changed life.

What about connecting directly to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Light of Life, and the salvation of our souls?  Where is that movie?

The entertainment dollar is king.  People don’t want their souls pricked and a challenge made for real life change.  We like entertainment in our movies, churches, community events, and homes.  Real life changing impact is not supported financially for the most part in our communities.  Yet, ignoring truth is a dangerous seasonal habit to form.

There is a mournfulness underlying our Christmas season.  Aversion to life changing truth brings depression.  It brings pain.  And pain brings destruction.  Evil is real and waiting for opportunity to express itself in dark acts.  Yes, especially at Christmas, evil erupts.  Suicides prevail greater than other times of year.  Depression is in high season.  Conflicts shatter otherwise smooth relationships.

Understand that the truth of Christmas does show itself.  It cannot be denied.  As a society, we love to deny the truth and replace it with a smoother reality.  Repressed truth erupts in pain and anger and depression and destruction.  Embraced truth erupts in joy and liberty and happiness and thankfulness and strength and life.

It would be better if we embraced the truth of Christmas and placed some life changing messy messages into our media.  Jesus came to seek and save the lost.  He is no longer a babe in the manger.  He is a Lion of Righteousness.  He demands we face truth and change our direction.  Yes, He demands it.  He knows that repressed truth ends in destruction for eternity and embraced truth lives in liberty for eternity.  He loves us enough to change us.

Embrace truth for a healthy life.  Embrace Christ.  Face realities and connect with a power to change and develop full health in body, mind, desires, emotion, spirit, and relationships.

Prayer:  Father, give a little light.  Better yet, let the Great Light You have already given explode into our darkness. We need You.   We need Your light.