As the year hurries to a close, for many it signals relief and a break from what may have been a tough and tiring year. It is the festive season that so many of us enjoy since it’s a time of food, gifts and in this part of the world, summer holidays. People love Christmas for these reasons because they bring happiness. Who doesn’t love honey leg ham, prawns and trifle? And who doesn’t love gifts and reconnecting with family and friends?
We know that this season is more than just these physical and material enjoyments that bring us happiness, it is the knowledge of God coming into this world to bring us into his saving grace. It is about the Christ in Christmas! As I say that however, we can be easily misunderstood as being ‘Over-saved’ or super spiritual. Others may say that we are being spiritual ‘Scrooges’.
On the contrary. I think that God wants us to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is at the heart of our existence and it is the motivating factor to what we do, even responding to the Gospel, is driven by a desire to discover enduring happiness. Blaise Pascal said, "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”
Thus it is perfectly acceptable to pursue happiness in your life but the most profound of differences is in the object of happiness. If you look for joy only in food, fun and festivities, it may give you some temporary semblance of enjoyment but it doesn’t last. It is fleeting. I am convinced, lasting and true happiness is not found in the ‘what’ but in the ‘who’. We were created first and foremost to have a relationship with God. To know Him and to have Him is to have joy. That regardless of our material situation if we have Jesus and He has us, then happiness will persist because our joy is not based on fleeting pleasures of this world but on our eternal connection with a loving Saviour. It is SIMPLY JESUS! Praise God and Joy to the World!
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Luke 2:10