The Best Time To Tell!

For most of those who are believers in Jesus Christ, telling others about Christ … sharing their faith … doesn’t always come easily and for some it NEVER comes easily.  That ought not be surprising since sinners are notoriously unfriendly toward any discussion of the Friend of Sinners.  If ever there was a time, however, when sharing your experience with Jesus should be easier, it seems to me as though that time is during the Christmas Season. 

It’s true that not everyone celebrates Christmas.  It’s also true that not everyone who celebrates Christmas views the meaning and significance of it in the same way.  Nevertheless, during this time of the year, Christmas is literally and invasively all around us.  One cannot avoid it!  Everywhere you turn, whether down this street or that, in this mall or another, on this channel or that, on this station or that, in this magazine or that, in today’s mail or tomorrow’s … it is literally EVERYWHERE!  It’s at the workplace, in the newspaper, in the grocery store and even at the ACE True-Value Hardware store!  Not only that, but special kiosks and tree lots that never exist any other time of the year suddenly spring up like mushrooms to make sure that you can’t miss the fact that Christmas is coming.

People who have no interest in spiritual things will plan and promote awe inspiring Christmas programs and displays for all to see and hear.  Unless you live in a bunker somewhere deep underground, you cannot escape the fact that there is something which draws attention to the fact that we are, like it or not, experiencing something that is related (in some cases very remotely) to an event that took place in the little town of Bethlehem a couple of thousand years ago. 

The men’s room at the PILOT truck stop, where I stopped recently, had a huge Plexiglas covered display on the wall where I stood inviting me to “celebrate Christmas” by taking advantage of all of the “Great Christmas Deals” being promoted until December 31.  I smiled to myself as I pondered the amazing reality that one cannot even take care of normal bodily functions without being impacted by the reality and influence of Jesus Birth (aka Christmas)!  I laughed aloud as I contemplated the notion of celebrating Christ’s Birth by purchasing a Bearcat police scanner, a locomotive air horn, or some questionably decorated mud-flaps for my truck!

Easter commemorates an important event that is foundational to the Christian faith, certainly.  But Easter does not have the power to permeate and affect our society on the same level as Christmas.  Easter is a distant second … similar perhaps to the relationship between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.  We all know which one of those gets top billing in the consciousness of our society!

All of this to suggest that at this time of year the ground is already plowed.  No one is going to be surprised if you want to talk with them about Christmas and in the process tell them what it means to you and why you celebrate it.  If you can’t work the Gospel into that kind of a situation then perhaps you need a visit from the “Spirit of Christmas” when you go to sleep tonight.  

There are as many ways to create opportunities to initiate such conversations as there are lights on your Christmas tree.  This time of year almost provides you with gilt edged, open invitation to do so!  In fact, in most people’s minds, if you don’t want to talk about Christmas and enter into the celebration on some level you are to be regarded odd, strange, and perhaps even downright weird!

For each of us, one and all, there is no time like the present to tell someone about Jesus.