Here we are with another year gone by.  Another fixin' Christmas fixin' to come and go.  Or do I need to be politically correct and say, “One more winter festivity season is upon us,”?  Nah…  It’s been Christmas for centuries and it’ll be Christmas for men and women who are strong enough to stand against this rising tide of silliness and downright stupidity.

You see that’s what we are.  Men and now women who have stood for our beliefs.  We are WARRIRORS !  Warriors then, warrirors now and warriors always.  Once, and for all, we'll be this nation's war fighters.  It's never going to matter what we say, or what anyone else says.  Just as the memories and events from our childhood are stuck in our minds and like the memories we make now — the memories of being a warrior are burned into who you are forever.

Another thing that’s burned into who we are just as intensely is a desire to know who God is.

Oh some of us deny that desire.  Many of us even ignore it.  Or try to.  There are a lot of us who have successfully seared or scorched over the part of our souls or our spirits that wants to know our Creator.  Thereby blocking out the desire to know our God.  For that manner, any god.  Still, thousands of us have found that specific path to peace and asked Him, the Son of God, into their lives.  Here’s the thing I want us to look at this Christmas season.

In a little known, yet meaningful passage of Scripture, is a piece of information that I believe speaks directly to the heart of the Christmas spirit.  I think, it also addresses everything I just mentioned.  It’s found in the Old Testament long before Christ Jesus was born and yet speaks of His coming; The passage addresses His birth and what will be accomplished in His life.

It is Isaiah, Chapter 9, verse 2 and it reads, “The people walking in darkness have seen the light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (New King James Version)

Jesus is spoken of as coming as a light to our world.  I think we can we all agree we’re in some pretty dark times? 

Jesus taught the disciples about the faith He brought the world.  He encouraged them that they too would be lights.  Let me say right now I know not every Christian is a bright light.  But then none of us are, are we.  The point is we need to stop looking at each other.  It's time, right now, that we all look to Jesus as our example to follow.  

As we move through this Christmas season and those haunting memories begin to creep in and friends who are long gone or at the other end of the nation and out of touch come into our minds bringing back even good thoughts, and sentimental times start to rise, ponder this for me.

None of us would be here if it wasn’t for the intervention of a God who cared. 

“Why didn’t He care enough to stop so many from being killed or injured then?”  Some of you might ask angrily.

That’s a very valid question.  And the answer is this.  God has set in place, let me say rules, that even He cannot violate.  And we, as humans make poor decisions because we have something called a “free will.”  Because we decide to go to war, does not make God responsible for the consequences.  But it does make God just as brokenhearted as we are.  The difference is He’s God and as God He has a job to do where we're concerned and He has to move beyond His pain and take care of us.  God grieves for us but He also has us to heal — if we let Him and some of us to take home.

It’s in that darkness the Scripture passage refers to that if you find yourself walking and you reach to Him, or if you call out for help, the Lord will respond and reach back.  He will answer and He will meet you.  He will shine light into that darkness and open a path for you to walk to perfect or complete peace.

In that perfection God can begin the process of healing and restoration and making us whole.  He will restore the dream that was stolen and He will reveal your purpose. And next year it won’t be just, “Christmas is Here Again.”