Christmas and Easter are complete wastes of time and money if Jesus did not rise from the dead and ascend to our Father in heaven. The billions of believers who place their faith in him are indeed pitiable. Christmas and Easter are joyful celebrations because he lives, he reigns, and he is coming again. 

An old, old Christmas carol silenced my singing yesterday as deep truth and musical beauty combined to declare again how God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). 

Sitting with Ollie and Millie before the fire and listening to a smooth jazz Christmas, a plaintive horn bid us 

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

It was a miracle Handel’s Messiah was ever performed. Read the backstory and see all the complications and barriers and outright evil that almost derailed it forever. Only by the grace of God was it completed and presented by some of the very people who sought to ruin the show. It was, and is, a work of amazing grace. Christmas and Easter stand side by side as one beautiful story of God’s love for his lost sons and daughters, and his seeking, saving, redeeming nature. 

My prayer for us all is whether in the car or the mall, whether at church or at work, we hear those old familiar carols and hymns and find our attention turned once again to him and his amazing love. Indeed, how can it be? 

Christmas and Easter endure not out of habit, but out of truth and life and the fondest hope and the most wonderful dream that will soon come truer than true for me and for you. 

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O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by The Piano Guys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO7ySn-Swwc

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I will sing my praise for our Father who saves.

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