Celebrate the Deliverer

It’s Tuesday evening as I sit down to the computer to collect, analyze, and share my thoughts. The Christmas season is in full swing and here we are in the very midst of the whirlwind. In a little while, we will be on our way to two of our grandchildren’s Christmas program at their pre-school.

Yesterday, my husband and I took off for a shopping trip an hour and a half away (we live in the country far from the Christmas malls). It was a nice day, well, not the weather—that was gray and cold and doing something that felt a little like tiny snow pellets. I think it might have been freezing fog. But it was a fun time together for the two of us. We bought a few gifts, ate at an upscale Italian restaurant, and made it to a gas station and just avoided running out of fuel.

Today, I hit the grocery store in preparation for Christmas feasting. It was a zoo—difficult to get down the aisles. I even bought a cut of meat that I’ve never cooked before and am not sure what to do with it. It was definitely an impulse purchase. What was I thinking? I did get fixin’s for cheese ball, beef dip, potato salad, shrimp cocktail, crab puffs, and wings. (We do appetizers rather than a formal meal) I will, however, need to make a couple of more trips to the grocery store to get all the things I forgot.

Here, in the midst of the season’s activities, there are still final plans to be made, food to be prepared, gifts to be wrapped, Christmas programs to be performed, and time and people to be enjoyed. Celebrations are so much fun, but they do take planning and effort. Cheese balls don’t happen by themselves, and our traditional cheese baller is headed to Florida this year for the holidays.

But me, I’m ready to continue the celebration. The book of Esther tells of a people under the sentence of destruction who were saved by a deliverer. Their reaction gives us a wonderful pattern to follow as we realize that we too, were sentenced to destruction until we were saved by a deliverer who came to a manger, went to a cross, and sits with the Father until the time comes when our deliverance is total.

“For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor. In every province and in every city, wherever the edict of the king went, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating.”

“…the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor…the Jews took it upon themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed.

These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city.

Count me in!