John 1:43 English Standard Version (ESV) The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

Today is Monday December 26th, the next day. This opening verse has nothing to do with Christmas and we can only relate to this next day by asking ourselves “Where has Jesus decided to go?”

If we are followers of Jesus Christ, we need to know where He is going in order to follow Him.

Before I began writing this I looked at my calendar and noticed that today is Christmas day celebrated by the business world. Because the 25th landed on Sunday, employers have given this Monday off. It is not “business as usual”.

For this retired author today is business as usual. My day begins with “Where are we going today?” Jesus does not take off days. He does not relent even a second of time. He is with us always. He is God and only God can do that.

Being human we get to choose how we spend this day. No judgment here, it is not for me to say to anyone what their needs are today. The list of possibilities is too large to list. What we do have is the freedom to decide for ourselves what to do with this day.

I can only speak for myself and anything I do should not be suggested as something that anyone should follow by example. This relationship with Christ is personal and being a follower of Christ means to answer to Him, not me, not your pastor, not your parents, and definitely not your boss today.

One of the great pleasures in following Jesus is the freedom we enjoy to make choices for ourselves without judgment. As Paul wrote in Romans 8:1 no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Are you in Christ? If so, praise God and be free to make your choices about how you spend this day.

As for me, I am here for you, because my Lord is here for you.

Isaiah 9:6-7 English Standard Version

⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

One of Strong’s Definitions of zeal indicates a change in His face due to strong emotions. What stronger emotion can exist above the perfect love of God?

“The conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity in AD 312 signalled the beginning of the end of pagan celebrations in the Empire, but early religious leaders couldn’t simply ban the popular Saturnalia, as there would be a backlash. There is a theory that they used many of the traits of the festival when establishing Christmas, a rival feast that would take Saturnalia’s place, but commemorate a Christian occasion: the birth of Jesus. The exchange of gifts was probably one of the traditions carried over from the old to the new.” Source giftsinternational.net

Consider this in our deliberations about the issue of gift giving.

God gave His Son to us long before man tried to make sense of how to mix paganism with Christianity.

Christ is the gift given.

Today we deal with the traditions of men. We carry the memory of how our families celebrated Christmas. We were young and we did not know much of anything in those days except what we were told.

We came of age and we received the gift of Christ by faith.

Now it is time to celebrate according to faith in the gift given.

How we celebrate says the only truth our children will hear about Christmas.