My tree isn't up yet.

I haven't bought a present.

And it's a good thing that this is not Christmas Day, because my house looks like an explosion in a mattress factory!

But this is the season when most of us are faced with more than we can do.

I see people all around me who are bone-tired and overextended.

But do you know what my salvation is this time of year? hove Christmas!

I don't love the busy-ness.

I don't love being bone-tired and overextended.

But I love Christmas!

When I was a kid I got excited about the fun of Christmas, and the presents, and surely my mother's chicken and dressing on Christmas Day.

These things are all still good. But the thing that really excites me now is not the fun of Christmas, but the grace of Christmas.

I am excited about that birth.

Because I know that without it, I am worse than "bone-tired."

I am dead. I am done-for.

Without Jesus Christ I wouldn't have a clue about the meaning of all of this.

Listen, I don't find the answers anywhere else.

Without Jesus, the meaning doesn't hold. The pieces of the puzzle don't fit.

In Jesus Christ I find the answer to every serious question I have asked of God.

When I see God through his eyes, my world is transformed.

In Christ -- and in Christ alone -- I know that I am loved, I am forgiven, and I am of eternal value.

I know that even my hardest day is precious time spent in God's presence.

And even in the midst of sorrow, joy is not far away, for the Lord is with me always.

Christmas takes a little effort, but I will give thanks. In the light of candles on Christmas Eve I will sing of that silent night long ago.

His birth brought me life.

His love is my hope forever.

(And you may need to know this: Christmas Eve services - 6:00 at Eastern Hills - 7:30 at St. Matthew.)