Christmastime is here...

One of my favorite Christmas tunes is Christmastime is Here, made popular by Charlie Brown's Christmas Special, which came on tonight by the way. I love this program, I look forward to it every year. I am amazed that it hasn't been banned since it includes the sharing of the true Christmas story. The true meaning of Christmas.

Remember when Charlie gets sent out to get a big, beautiful pink aluminum Christmas tree? Do you remember what he comes back with? A small twig with three pitiful branches. All his "friends" laugh and scoff at him. He hangs his head in shame, crying out "What is the true meaning of Christmas!?!?"

Then Linus takes his place in the spotlight. Reciting the passage out of Luke that so many of us know, but often forget in the hustle and bustle of the season. As he finishes, Charlie smiles, picks up his tree and leaves. He tries to hang one ornament on it and it droops to the ground. Until his friends come along, and somehow, that meek and simple twig became a shining, beautiful tree. They gather around it and hum "Hark the Herald Angels Sing..." What a moment.

I would love to say I would be Linus, reminding everyone what the true meaning of Christmas is. Instead, I am one of the scoffers, mad because traffic has quadrupled during lunch, frustrated that I can't find one register open at Wal-Mart with less than 10 people in it and find myself sighing loudly at the person who took the close parking place. Yeah, not very Linusy...

So as I think of Charlie and his Christmas tree, with three branches and his friends who scoffed at him and laughed, I think of Jesus, hanging on one of three crosses on a hill, surrounded by people who scoffed and laughed at him, yet He is my shining, beautiful Savior.

And for that I am thankful. Merry Christmas!