A Curious Thing Happened in CO

So we went skiing in Colorado for Christmas. The event was fun. And cold. And icy. But I'm not really sitting down to write about that. I'm sitting down to write about what struck me on the last leg home of our journey.

Riding on the infernal stretch of the interstate that is our passage home after air flight, I took the opportunity to reflect upon the events of the ski trip. But it's not the events that I want to write about, so much as it is The Event. No, no story here. Just an observation about The Event.

 When flying, shuttling, bussing, renting, lifting, skiing, eating, and idling, one comes in contact with an awful lot of people. During normal days, these encounters are coupled with greetings of Hello, Hi, Dude! or Howdy!, whatever one's preference. But at this time of year, as we all know, things are a bit different. It's the holidays; specifically, it's Christmas -- for Christians.

And this is what I realized. Maybe many of you have realized this before. Maybe I'm slow. But I well know society has chosen to gradually walk away from the traditional "Merry Christmas!" greeting/salutation. But during this trip, I came to notice that when I said it, I no longer took it for granted. I no longer said it flippantly. I said "Merry Christmas" with meaning and pride and sincerity. And the people said it back to me -- with meaning and pride and sincerity. With purpose. In most people, there was a certain meeting of the eye, a certain nod of the head, which emitted a certain warmth, a certain aknowlegement.

The folks that intended to take Christ out of Christmas and Christmas out of the calendar have failed. Ahahaha! They have failed! All of their efforts have culminated in this, for me -- and others, I'm sure -- what was once a stale greeting and and overused response is now special. It does not pass my lips without acknowledgment in my heart that Jesus Christ is LORD.  From here to CO, and beyond, Jesus Christ is Lord. He reigns. He is The Event. He is The All.  He is The Everything. He was, He is, and He always will be -- MERRY CHRISTMAS.