A Note from Tom: December 17th, 2010

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome, carol-singing, hall-decking, joy-to-the-world week of Christmasy-ness!! And with folks getting stuck in the frozen, frigid, treacherous, icy winter wonderland, it’s an awesome opportunity to show the love of Jesus and do something really Grinchy for someone, somewhere near you!

Well, this has been a …

What?

Oh, sorry.

“Doing something Grinchy” means doing something kind and helpful, for peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

“But I thought the Grinch was the meanest, coldest, most hateful, most spiteful creature ever!”

Yeah. But only at the beginning. Not in the end! In the end he wasn’t that way! He was different! He’d changed! His heart grew three sizes in one day! He brought Christmas back to Whoville, after risking his life on the top of Mt Crumpit! And he, the Grinch, carved the roastbeast!

I wish folks would remember him for what he became, not what he had been!

That song still says, “You’re a mean one, Mr Grinch!”

It should say, “You WERE a mean one”!

Even worse, it goes on to say stuff like,…

“You’re a nasty wasty skunk

Your heart is full of unwashed socks,

Your soul is full of gunk

Mr. Grinch…

You’re a rotter Mr. Grinch

You’re the king of sinful sots

Your hearts a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots

Mr. Grinch…

The 3 words that best describe you, are as follows, and I quote

Stink, Stank, Stunk”

Maybe he WAS those things (“the king of sinful sots”…wow!), but not by the last page!

If you met him today, he’d be the sweetest creature you’d ever know! To do something “Grinchy” is to do something loving with a heart full of Christmas! Because that’s who the Grinch is now! (Except that he doesn’t actually exist.)

Take ol’ Scrooge. Sometimes folks say, “What a Scrooge!...You ol’ Scrooge!”” It’d be an awesome world if everyone were like Scrooge! What if everyone was what he was at the end of the story?“…as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world... and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.  May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”

It’s not about what you WERE! It’s about what God is making you now! The past is gone! It’s past! That’s why they call it that! You’re not who you were! You’re new! Our God doesn’t see the mess of before! He looks at us and sees saints! (Eph 1.1) Sons and daughters! (Rom. 8.14) Holy ones! Whole ones! His choice! Beloved! (Col 3.12) Beauties! (Song of Songs 1.15)

One psychiatrist wrote, “I could never see why people were so happy about Dicken’s Christmas Carol because I never had any confidence that Scrooge was going to be different the next day.” In other words, “I don’t think people really change for good…or even for long. It happens in stories, but not in life.”

Sad.

Because it DOES happen!

And not just in stories!

All because of a story!

The Christmas story! That story is different than the Grinch story…or the Scrooge story. It’s a true story! It’s a “story” in the way they talk about a “news story” in the paper or on CNN…the story of something that really happened! As Linus reminds us each Christmas, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people…That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” The words “bring good tidings” translate one word from the Greek language. “I euangelizomai you!”…which means, “I tell you good NEWS! Something has happened!”

It’s true! A savior has come! He really has! We’re not who we were! And a heart really CAN grow three sizes in one day!

Makes you just wanna sing with all those Whos down in Whoville, the tall and the small…

“Fah who for-aze
Dah who dor-aze
Welcome Christmas
Christmas Day!

Welcome, welcome
Fah who rah-moose
Welcome,welcome
Dah who dah-moose

Welcome Christmas, fah who rah-moose
Welcome Christmas, dah who dah-moose
Christmas Day will always be
Just so long as we have He!

Welcome Christmas
Dah who dah-moose
Welcome Christmas
While we stand
Heart to heart
And hand in hand

Fah who for-aze
Dan who dor-aze
Welcome welcome
Christmas, Christmas Day!

BlogCCC Oak RidgeTom Job