13 Days Until Christmas!
Song: “White Christmas,” by Bing Crosby
Christmas Album: “A Motown Christmas,” by Various Artists
Christmas DVD: “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”
Netflix Movie: “Love Actually”
Amazon Prime Movie: “Crazy for Christmas”
Disney+ Movie: “One Magic Christmas”
Hulu Movie: “My Christmas Fiancé”
Hallmark Movie: “Christmas Everlasting”
On TV:
New programming in bold
• “White Christmas,” 2 p.m., AMC
• “A Christmas Carol (2009),” 4 p.m., Freeform
• “When I Think of Christmas,” 4 p.m., Hallmark
• “The Year Without a Santa Claus,” 4:45 p.m., AMC
• “Miracle on 34th Street (1994),” 5:20 p.m., FXX
• “Elf,” 6 p.m., AMC
• “A Christmas Carol (2009),” 6 p.m., Freeform
• “Holiday Hotline,” 6 p.m., Hallmark
• “The Grinch,” 7:40 p.m. and 9:25 p.m., FXX
• “Holiday of Light: Christmas With the Tabernacle Choir,” 8 p.m., PBS
• “Christmas With the Kranks,” 8 p.m., AMC
• “Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater,” 8 p.m., Hallmark
• “Godmothered,” 8:30 p.m., Freeform
• “Four Christmases,” 10 p.m., AMC
• “Christmas With a Kiss,” 10 p.m., Hallmark
Recipe: Southern Snowballs
Quick Thought for Christmas
Read
Isaiah 7:10-17
Matthew 1:18-25
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Isaiah 7:14
Reflect
Picture this situation.
Sweet little Mary McNamara came home one day with a big dilemma. She had some huge news – HUGE NEWS – to tell her parents. It would shake their world and change the course of her life, and she was sure they wouldn’t understand. No one would.
The only thing to do was take a deep breath and tell them. They’d find out eventually, and it would be better if it came from her.
“Mom, Dad. I have something to tell you. A little more than a month ago, an angel came to me and told me I was going to have a baby, and that it would be God’s child. And I’ve never been with a guy. I mean, I’m dating Joe Carpenter, but we’ve never even been alone together. But that day, after the angel left, something felt different. And now I’ve missed my period, and I took a pregnancy test. And I’m definitely pregnant.”
Of course, her parents must have been so excited…
How would you have responded? How do you think they responded?
In Mary’s time, this could have meant death for her, especially if Joseph wasn’t so understanding. Fortunately, God spoke to Joseph’s heart, and he married her despite something so unexplainable – at least when looking at it as people naturally would.
Of course, this pregnancy was predicted more than 700 years earlier when Isaiah wrote that a virgin would conceive and have a son. It had to happen for God’s plan to be complete. But when it did happen, no one understood. They likely wrote it off as a naive young girl who simply got herself into trouble.
God does things in His own way and in His own timing. This Christmas season, look for the little miracles that God might do in and around you. Make sure you don’t discount His works and write them off as coincidences. And keep your heart focused on His constant presence as the day of Christmas draws ever nearer.
Reflection copyright © 2023 by Doug DeBolt.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
