And may the Lord make your love grow and overflow to each other and to everyone else, just as our love overflows toward you. (1 Thessalonians 3:12 NLT)

We received the first snow of the season today. It wasn't even an inch of snowfall, yet it turned the mountains into a beautiful, crystal-white paradise. I enjoyed being outside and feeling the cold, brisk air blowing the flakes around. Our Saint Bernard, Buddy, was a delight to watch as he literally jumped for joy in the snow as my daughter walked him. My heart warmed as I thought of the Christmas season to come with all of its gifts of peace, goodwill, kindness, laughter, joy, and love. I wished that every day could be Christmas Day. Then I remembered that each day can be like Christmas Day if we choose to make it so.

After all, God's love for us isn't just limited to one day a year. God's love is with us everyday. It never wavers. It never fades. His love for us is joyous and eternal just as the life He promises us is joyous and eternal. Why should our love be any different? Why should our greatest gifts of goodness, kindness, and joy just be limited to one day a year?

Do your best to make everyday more like Christmas.
Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol calls Christmas, "A good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely."

I hope that one day as everyone in this world learns to better choose and share love and joy that these feelings will not be limited to one time of the year. As everyone in this world learns to grow in oneness with God, I pray that the Christmas Spirit will last all throughout the year. As everyone in this world learns to live as God intended for us to live, each day can become more like Christmas Day.

May all of you have a Merry Christmas. May your hearts be full of love and good cheer. May your souls sing with joy and oneness with God. And may you always, with every choice you make, do your best to make every day more like Christmas Day.

Indeed, your love is already strong toward all the Christians in all of Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we beg you to love them more and more. (1 Thessalonians 4:10)