The decorations are up, the flyers, mailings and advertisements proclaim it. “It’s Christmas Time!” It is time for covetous hearts to make merry and misery in idolatry. Those who covet your spending are shouting and those who covet in spending and being spent in spending are listening. I am sorry for getting you started in the season with such boorish and Scrooge like thoughts, but ‘tis the season to be jolly’!
But jolly and blessed are two different things. I appreciate what Webster said about Jolly. He says, it is “Merry; gay; lively; full of life and mirth; jovial. It expresses more life and noise than cheerful; It is seldom applied in colloquial usage to respectable company. We rarely say of respectable persons, they are jolly. It is applied to the young and the vulgar.” (Webster’s Dictionary 1828). It is in these last days that we would be ungrateful so that we can be jolly. And it is because we are not blessed that we can leave off Thanksgiving to be jolly in Christmas time.
Blessed describes one who is highly favored by the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer in the knowledge and enjoyment of him. It describes an enduring joy in the midst of pressing circumstances. This is why the Scriptures can say, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord” (Jer.17:7) or “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked , or stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers (all of whom may be jolly); but his delight is in the law of the Lord,” (Ps.1:1-2) or “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.” (Mt.5:3-10). The blessed are the joyful who have the knowledge that they have received everything from God and that their joy is in the continual knowledge and enjoyment of his glory in all things. The blessed long for Thanksgiving where they can celebrate a thanksgiving to God for all his beneficence to them as residents and members of a free state under his kind hand of providence and rule of law, and where they can unite with others to confess our personal and national sins against him who has made us and takes care of us and to plead with him to have mercy on the nation and to pour out an undeserved blessing upon us. Thanksgiving is the opposite of idolatry. Thanksgiving is the solemn and joyful expression of an engaged mind and an affectionate heart that everything has been done for you by one true and living God. Blessed are those who can give thanks to the only wise God.
Tis the season to exchange the worship of the creature and the creation for the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer, to put off jolly for being blessed by Almighty God who is the Savior of sinners. Tis the season to give thanks and to look with joyful anticipation for the return of the glorious Savior Jesus Christ who will glorify all who confess their sins and put their faith in him and long for his appearing in thanksgiving, trust, and obedience to his will.
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