In two short days, Christmas will be here. Have you ever noticed how it seems like the Christmas season has ended and no sooner has it ended than it seems it comes around again? I think that is called “time flies when you are having fun.” 🙂 

Jo, Tami and I will be heading to Ohio tomorrow (Wednesday) to spend Christmas day with our family (daughter, Janna; her significant other, Mike; our grandson, Braden; his girlfriend, Cameron; and Andrew, Mike’s son).  For the first time we will be staying at an AirBNB because Mike and Janna’s place is too small for all of us. We crammed in there last year but that only happened because Andrew was gone seeing a girl and Braden and Cameron came after visiting her family’s side. Mike decided he didn’t like the crowded conditions and booked a BNB for us.  It will be nice to be together and not in a sterile hotel room, or in a cramped and crowded duplex. We plan to return Friday since both Mike and Janna have to work.  We hope to be coming back to a new walk-in shower and bathroom. Rusty, a man from the church, says he can get it done. 

So I would like to leave you with some thoughts since this will be my last post until next Monday (the 29th). I have been reading Alistair Begg’s Christmas devotional called Let Earth Receive Her King for the past 24 days. I confess that some of my thoughts have found their seed from his book, although I tried to write original stuff. (How’s that for an educational word?). In the last devotion, #24, he wrote this:

The New Testament ends in the way the Old Testament ends: looking forward with anticipation and confident expectation. That is one of the marks of Christian reality. It is one of the tests of the vibrancy of our faith and the spiritual vitality of our churches. We are a waiting people: waiting not for Christmas but for Christ….So as another Advent season draws to a close, look forward so that you will continue to be drawn to what lies ahead.

Many people will look back over Christmas and wonder and wish. I have always found that to look backwards is not a good thing to do. We can learn from the past, true. But we must look ahead. The writer of Hebrews says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” (Heb. 12:1-2 NLT)

So…MERRY CHRISTMAS my friends. Look ahead. Focus on Jesus. (I can’t wait to share with you about 2026!!)