The Whole Year Through

                             The Whole Year Through

                             So remember while December

                                    Brings the only Christmas Day

                                    In this year let there be Christmas

                                    In the things you do and say;

                                    Wouldn’t life be worth the living?

                                    Wouldn’t dreams be coming true?

                                    If we kept the Christmas spirit

                                    All this whole year through?

                                    Anonymous

            This little anonymous poem is a good motto for the month of January and all the other months of this year.  The spirit of Christmas is encapsulated in the golden text of the Bible which is Joh 3:16.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  There are two words in this text that are worth our consideration as we enter this New Year.  First, there is the word loved (agapao 25) which means charity or unselfish love in action.  Certainly God’s sending of His only begotten son to save sinful men and women who did not love God was an unselfish action and the greatest action of love.

            Second, there is the word gave (didomi 1325) which is used in the N T in a number of applications.  It means literally to give but it also means to commit, to yield, to bestow, and to give for suffering.  I am not qualified to declare that all or part of these meanings may be fitted into a correct exegesis of this verse, but I believe that all of these meanings represent what God did for us when He gave us His only Son. 

            So, this little poem should guide our actions as we love and give to others during this New Year.  This humanistic culture purports that we should all exert our will on others.  It teaches that we should get all that we can get and “can’ all we get during this year. The example of the spirit of Christmas is to give the very best that we have to this sin cursed world.  I do not know what you have to give to others but whatever you have should be shared with those who need it most. St. Matthew recorded  the words of Jesus (10:42) “And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.”