The Happiest Time of the Year<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
J. Michael Sharman
 
[This column was first published in a slightly different form in the Culpeper Star-Exponent on December 31, 2005.]
 
The seeds of disappointment begin to be planted during Thanksgiving week.
 
The TV commercials and newspaper inserts tell exactly what it is we need to buy for every person on our shopping list. People then rush to the mall and push, shove, and even assault one another to get the latest "must have" present or doorbuster special. But by New Year's Eve, the trash cans by the curb  will be chock full of torn wrapping, empty boxes, and the first wave of newly broken toys.
 
In just a few short weeks, the tune running through our heads switches from Gladys Knight's "It's The Happiest Time of the Year" to Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?".
 
By the time the New Year rolls around, an awful lot of people are justified in asking, "Tell me again, why is this supposed to be the happiest time of the year?"
 
·        The winter solstice falls on December 21st which makes Thanksgiving to New Year's Day literally the darkest time of the year.  
·        One in 10 Americans  are robbed or burglarized during the Christmas season.
·        In any given year, Christmas has more than three times the number of traffic fatalities than does New Year's Eve. Forty-five percent of the Christmas fatalities are alcohol related.
·        There's more deaths of all types, 5% more, during the Christmas and New Year's holidays than during the rest of the year.
·        There's the death of our hopeful expectations. We want to give love and get love but all too often all what we wind up with is a season full of selfishness.
 
I'm a lawyer.  My work throughout the year deals with broken marriages, abandoned children, failed business dreams and lives surrendered to destructive temptations.  I know that for many of you, this "happiest time of year" only makes you feel more deeply the pain and loneliness of your life. 
 
But Jesus Christ came as a poor little immigrant child, grew to be a man who was scorned and rejected.  He died a crummy death after an unfair trial and then rose from the grave to show us that even the worst the world can dish out really can't matter all that much.
 
Whether we're a baby getting our first tooth or older folks losing our last, whether we're millionaires or welfare moms, whether we're lawyers or guys behind bars, Jesus Christ wants the pleasure of our company for all eternity. 
 
You can accept this Christmas invitation by telling Him this:  Thank you, Jesus, for the Christmas gift of being my Savior from the empty life I've had and becoming my Lord, my Master, in the great new life you have given me.
 
When you do that, the Light of the world will push away the darkness. The Great Provider will not forsake you. The Creator will give you eternal life. The carpenter from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Nazareth will be building a home for you in Heaven. The Holy Spirit, the great Comforter, will become your constant companion.
 
God's Christmas gift has been taken down from the Cross and placed under your tree. It is never too early to open and unwrap that Gift. When you do, you can have a very Merry Christmas, three hundred sixty five days every year.