CHAPTER FOUR: THE PROMISED KING

“It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is a Christmas song written in 1963 by Edward Pola and George Wyle and recorded by Andy Williams for his first Christmas album. The song, considered by many as one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time, is a celebration and description of activities associated with the Christmas season (focusing primarily on get-togethers between friends and families). Nostalgia is great. We love nostalgia. Celebrating long-held traditions is special. We love the traditions of Christmas. Being with family and friends should happen during a season like Christmas. But there is so much more to this season than tradition and the activities and celebrations of the season.

So what makes Christmas the most wonderful time of the year? One line of the song goes, “There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.” This song talks about tradition and memories, but there is one Christmas is more glorious than any of the ones since… and that is the first Christmas. The day that heaven touched earth and the Messiah Jesus literally became Immanuel, God with us. As great as any one Christmas we have experienced may have been, none can hold a candle to that first one.

That first Christmas marked the King’s arrival to fight the evil, redeem the broken, and offer hope and restoration. That Christmas was when the Wonderful Counselor showed up and offered his wisdom to us. That was the Christmas where true peace could finally be experienced through the Prince of Peace. It was the Christmas when Mighty God became one of us and showed us how to live our lives as servants. It was when the Everlasting Father opened the gate to eternity for each of us. The first Christmas was that moment in time when God’s plan was set into motion for the reconciliation of humankind back to himself.  It was that moment that gave you and me the opportunity to respond to the King’s invitation to receive his grace and his promise of forgiveness.

If you know that in your life, then celebrate, remember, and share! If you don’t, may this be the year that you embrace the King’s offer of forgiveness, hope, and grace into your life and you to are able to say, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”