Come Home for Christmas

" Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." ~  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

I grew up in a humble home where money was scarce, but love, joy, and peace were abundant. Christmas was a wonderful time that was always eagerly anticipated. We always had a real tree that my dad would chop down from the hill behind our house. Every child would get one gift and a treat bag filled with candy and fruit. The house would be filled with tantalizing smells coming from the kitchen, and the walls reverberated with the sound of talking, laughing, singing, and praying from the voices of my large family. I long for the simplicity and the child-like wonder of those long-ago Christmases.

I was an avid reader, and books allowed me to travel to exotic places that, as a child, I could only dream about. As an adult, I have been blessed to see some beautiful places, but my heart yearns for home this Christmas.

In the South American country of Columbia, something miraculous happened. In 2010, the news program 60 Minutes aired a story titled " Operation Christmas."  According to the report, Columbia was one of the most violent countries on earth for over fifty years. The government and the military had been in a fifty-two-year civil war with revolutionary guerillas that had left 220,000 dead and millions displaced.

The Columbian military came up with an unusual idea to stop the warfare. The military hired a creative ad executive, Jose Sokoloff, to convince hundreds of fighters to give up without firing a shot. In December 2010, Sokoloff launched a campaign called " Operation Christmas."  Black hawk helicopters took Columbian special forces deep inside the forests into rebel territory. They found nine 75-foot trees near guerilla strongholds, and they decorated them with Christmas lights. They rigged each tree with a motion detector. When a rebel guerilla walked by, it triggered the detector and lit the tree and a banner that read, " If Christmas can come to the jungle, you can come home. Demobilize -- at Christmas, everything is possible!"

Mr. Sokoloff located the mothers of some of the rebels and asked them for photos of their sons and daughters. They strung the photos across the jungle with this message from their mothers, " Before you were a guerilla, you were my child. So, come home for Christmas because I will always be waiting for you at Christmas."  Over five hundred rebel guerillas laid down their weapons, walked out of the jungle, and came home for Christmas.

All across the world, people celebrate Christmas. They know there is something special, maybe even miraculous, about Christmas, but many have no clue what it is. 

" And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."  John 1:14 

The real meaning of Christmas is a person -- Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace!

For thousands of years, God's people waited for the coming of the Messiah. The scribes pored over the prophecies concerning Him. One night He quietly came, but only a few were aware of His birth. Because He did not fit the picture of what the Jewish people were expecting, they  missed   Him and then  dismissed  Him. He came, He went, He's coming again! Are you ready?

"A Christian home! What a power it is to the child when he is far away in the cold, tempting world, and the voices of sin are filling his ears and his feet stand on slippery places." ~  Abbott Eliott Kittredge

So many people have walked away from Christian homes and the local church. But no matter how far they go in sin, they can never escape the power of the prayers of mothers, fathers, grandparents, pastors, and a host of friends and loved ones who intercede on their behalf in prayer. These people have forsaken Christ for the pleasures of sin and have become prodigals who need to return home.

"The First Time Jesus Came

He came veiled in the form of a child. A star marked His arrival. Wise men brought Him gifts. There was no room for Him. Only a few attended His arrival. He came as a baby.



The Next Time Jesus Comes

He will be recognized by all. Heaven will be lit by His glory. He will bring rewards for His own. The world won't be able to contain His glory.

Every eye shall see Him. He will come as Sovereign King and Lord of all." ~   John F. MacArthur Jr.

If you are a prodigal, remember, if Christmas can come to a manger in Bethlehem, you  CAN  come home! Jesus Christ is waiting for you with outstretched arms.

O, come, let us adore Him...Come home for Christmas!  

Have a blessed, Christ-filled Christmas!