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BY BRANDON YOUNG
Christmas is around the corner, and I want to take this opportunity to thank each of you for reading the Solution Column! I hope it blesses you! As I drove to work this week, I thought about how Christmas created a great and positive change in our world. God sent His only son as a perfect sacrifice to a world cursed by sin. A light filled the darkness, and hope appeared for all humanity! Isaiah 9:6 proclaims, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
I am thankful that a wonderful Prince of Peace came to a chaotic, confused, and hate-filled world to bring about a much needed change. The shepherds experienced that change first-hand as they adored the babe in Bethlehem that was wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. Winds of change had begun to blow and everyone could feel them. I am most grateful for the moment that Jesus entered my dark and cold heart. He changed my life and my eternity. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Christ made me a completely new creature! He is the only one that can bring about that type of real and lasting change. The world truly wants to see positive change, but they are looking in all the wrong places.
It seems that all Christmas stories and books were written with the same theme in mind. One or more of the main characters need a positive change, and a miracle takes place on Christmas. Many see Christmas as a special and miraculous night! I have to believe this idea originates from that first Christmas in the little town of Bethlehem when a virgin gave birth in a stable to the Son of God! That first Christmas set a standard that on Christmas comes positive change. This is a staple in all Christmas movies even those secular Christmas movies. The plot revolves around how a needed change occurs on Christmas. In The Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is a stingy and hateful old man in desperate need of a change. We see a change occur over the course of Christmas Eve and by early Christmas morning, he is completely a different man that loves everyone. In the children’s movie Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, we encounter other reindeer and even Santa Claus mistreating Rudolph because of his red nose. On Christmas Eve during a storm, Rudolph’s red nose makes him a hero that saves Christmas. He is then loved by all. You can see this same storyline in all the Christmas films. Clark Griswold’s boss sees the error of his ways and reinstates the Christmas bonus, the Grinch sees that Christmas is more than what comes from a store, and Buddy the Elf’s dad decides to take responsibility and be a real father. I have just named a few, but if you look carefully you will see it in all Christmas movies. Christmas creates a positive change in everyone.
What needs to be changed in your life? You do not have to wait for Christmas day to receive that change. You can go to Jesus Christ and ask today! Allow Jesus to make positive changes in your family, marriage, and life. All of the movie characters I mentioned above realized that they desperately needed a change. Once you realize and accept the fact that a change is needed, you can see that change come to fruition when you give Christ the room to work.
(Brandon Young is pastor of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton)