I want to focus attention on a word from God that seems at first glance to be most untimely as we celebrate this Christmas season. I am referring to the passage of scripture in Philippians 3 in which Paul tells us, "One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Strange that I would admonish you to forget what lies behind at a time which seems to be so dedicated to dwelling in cherished memories of past Christmases. This spirit of reminiscence is captured in many contemporary Christmas songs which bask in the inebriation of "the golden days of yore", that is, the "good old days". This is a familiar Christmas sentiment. I sincerely doubt that there is another person on planet Earth who has more wonderful childhood memories of Christmas than I do. I am sincerely grateful for the love of my family that has surrounded me down through the years. But more and more I have found it singularly unsatisfying to try to dwell in and recreate some past memory. Sentimentality and nostalgia are next door neighbors to melancholy, which is just down the road a piece from depression. So it is no wonder so many people are depressed this time of year. It makes perfect sense if you think about it. What made those golden days of childhood so golden and magical is that we never dwelt in the past back then. We were too busy living in the wonder of the Now. You'll never hear a kid talking about the "good old days", unless he is imitating some tom fool adult. Jesus told us that we need to be converted and become like children. Perhaps in this way more than any other we need to become children again - live in the present, pressing on towards the future. As far as I'm concerned, these days I'm living in right now are the good old days, and I expect that the best is yet to come. God and I are just getting started in a wonderful love affair that will last throughout eternity. He and I are not bound to this physical world, where everything seems to be fading. That's why I'm pressing on, looking forward and not back. God loves us. He can't help it, that's just His nature. And I'm enjoying every minute of it. I am so filled with His Spirit that I can hardly stand it. But I wasn't always this way. I had to be converted. Then, using the authority of the name of Jesus, I had to cast out the spirit of melancholy. I had to stop living in the past, and that required a death of my old Self. I can never go back, but I don't want to. I don't disavow my past. I simply don't live there anymore. Like every believer in Jesus of Nazareth, my citizenship is in heaven. I dwell in the city of the living God. I'm a member in good standing of the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven. I've been transferred out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of His love. I live in the Now, the kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. That is why Christmas is such a deliriously wonderful celebration for kingdom-minded Christians. It can be for you, too. God does not play favorites. Reach out to Him now and ask Jesus into your heart. Hear the words of the favorite Christmas carol say, "How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven. No ear may near His coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him, still the dear Christ enters in." Make a new memory right now. Ask Jesus in, and let this be the best Christmas you have ever had.
@ copyright 1993 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.