Dancing

"Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (Matt. 24:42).

There is a Peanuts cartoon strip which goes like this:

Snoopy the dog is feeling great. He comes dancing into the first frame, saying to himself, "Sometimes I love life so much I can't express it!" 

In the second frame he continues to dance: "I feel that I want to take the first person I meet in my arms and dance merrily through the streets." 

Then, in the third frame, he meets very grumpy Lucy. Snoopy is silent.

In the fourth frame, he is dancing again: "I feel that I want to take the second person I meet into my arms and dance merrily through the streets." 

When you think about the possibilities that God offers us through the Babe of Bethlehem it makes you want to dance.

Helen Keller once put it this way" "The legend tells that when Jesus was born the sun danced in the sky and the aged trees straightened themselves and sent forth the fragrance of blossoms once more. These are the symbols of what takes place in our hearts when the Christ child is born anew each year. Blessed by the Christmas sunshine, our natures,, perhaps long leafless,  bring forth new love, new kindness, new mercy, and new compassion. As the birth  of Jesus was the beginning of the Christian life, so the unselfish joy at Christmas shall start the spirit that is to rule the new year."

That is indeed the spirit that we need. We need to have done with our waddling in the muck and mire of despair. We need to begin watching the heavens for a star, for a Savior, for one who will redeem us from our faithless ways. The Master has thus instructed us :"Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (Matt. 24:42).

Questions to Ponder

• Do you want to dance?

• Would you like for Christ to be born anew in your heart this year?

• Are you watching the heavens for a Savior this year?

In His Service,
Terry Phillips