No, Evan has not lost his mind.  OK, so maybe I have, but that’s beside the point.

Tonight our church had our Christmas program.  On January 6.  Not in December.  What happened, you ask?  Well, we had to cancel church due to a massive pile of snow that fell from the sky to the ground here in Indiana on the week (Dec. 16) we had intended to have it.  So we had a Christmas program in January.

I’ll admit, it was a little weird singing Christmas songs and looking at Christmas decorations in January.  There was just something about it, though, that made it special.  Like our pastor said at the end of the service, “Christmas is not about December 16.  Christmas is not about December 24.  Christmas is not about December 25.  Christmas is about the love of God.”

I had been thinking a lot about that exact same thing all during Christmas this year.  I am a Christmas freak.  If there were a radio station that played 24/7/365 Christmas music, you would hear it every time you got in my car.  I love Christmas decorations.  I enjoy buying gifts.  Christmas is a time for me when most of my reason goes out the window in favor of Christmas spirit.  But in spite of it all, I kept coming back to the fact that Christmas is not about me!  It’s not about stuff and what I want.  It’s about Christ and the hope-filled message of love his birth imparts to us all.  Without Christ, it would just be Mas.  And that’s kind of a stupid name for a holiday, don’t you think?

All throughout Christmas, I could not get my mind off of hope.  Christ has taken a world that was doomed for destruction, and given it hope.  Christ didn’t care what you called the official time that you celebrated his birth, because the hope He has given us is so great that it deserves constant, everyday rejoicing!  For all He cares, you could call it Flobuberalunermungleshanckeslymas.  However, Hallmark would have to buy bigger presses for greeting cards.

Share that with your kids all the time.  Hope.  Hope.  Hope.  Hope.  Hope.  Hope.  Everything you do, your workers do, your friends do, your family does, your church members do, it should all seethe hope.  Every fiber of your being should scream at the top of its lungs: HOPE!  That’s all.  No strings attached.  Just hope.  The way I see it, hope is what it’s all about.