Tis' the season

We are at that point in the year that this phrase
“Tis’ the season”… is used frequently and often times in manner for whatever is happening.  Of course, we all know this phrase is from the Christmas song, Deck the Halls with this notable line of “Tis’ the season to be jolly…falalalalala”.  Did I use enough “lalalas”? I am more like “olly” with no “j”.  I can get excited for this season, but I have to work at it.  I am not the person who starts listening to Christmas music or watching Christmas Hallmark movies even before Thanksgiving is over. I have to “warm” to “tis the season” hoping I get to the “jolly” part.
 
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a “scrooge”.  I would say I just don’t blink red and green the whole month.  The other day, I was back in the orthopedic office, sad to say not a re-check on my wrist but another fracture. “Bah humbug”!  Oh, yes, I just said I was not a “scrooge”.  While I was waiting for my ever notorious name, “Karen” to be called to see the doctor, the office was showing the movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  You are probably not surprised that I have not ever seen the movie, however I did catch an interesting part that I have been ruminating over ever since.  In one scene, the village people put the Grinch in a “cheer chair”.  I have been giving this idea some thought.
 
I don’t know if the intent of the cheer chair was to cheer for the Grinch or for him to find a state of being in a cheerful or happy mood. Obviously, he aligned closely with the attitude of Mr. Scrooge. Please feel free to inform me on the purpose of the cheer chair.  As I thought about the Grinch being put in the cheer chair, at what seemed to be against his wishes, it led me to think about how easy it would be to put an unhappy person in a cheer chair and whatever is making them sour would turn to sweet syrup just by people “cheering” them on…encouraging them and saying nice comforting things to them.  If it was just that easy to cheer up all the people in the world. We would have a chair circling the world instead of Santa.
 
I reminisce of some things we did with our children while they were at home. We often had a “cheer” time in which we would go around the table and say something nice about the person or some quality, or talent that we saw in their lives.  The rule was no repeats. On those occasions, it did not take long for the kids to start spouting out something.  With that many people to give a “cheer” being the 6th person to contribute could be challenging.
 
 Since it is “tis the season to be jolly….” what can we do on a daily basis to sow cheer to others?  Speak words of kindness and encouragement. Proverbs 15:23 says A person finds joy in giving an apt reply— and how good is a timely word! A timely word….many of us have experienced a moment when someone said something to us or we heard a song on the radio that spoke just to what our heart needed to hear. It was like God was “cheering” us on.  I had that moment today in the car just like that.  As I was ruminating over my current plight, I turned on the radio which was on a Christian station and the woman referenced Psalm 139:1-18
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.

The truth: I have not been forgotten by God. His thoughts are ever about me. Verse 5 speaks volumes. “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.”  I often pray this over people. We are all sewn up in Him. That cheers me on!
As I was meditating on this, I was mindful of the story in 1 Kings 17: 7-24 Elijah had declared a drought and the Lord told him to go to a town called Zarephath.
7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”
15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
22 The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
 
The Widow of Zarephath was at the end of road. She had one meal for her son and her, being the end of their lives.  The Lord directed Elijah to go to the widow for food, fully knowing the widow did not have enough food for Elijah.  She needed cheering on to live. Elijah told the widow to not be afraid but just go do what he told her to do.  Food did not end in her home and even when her son became ill to the point of death, Elijah asked God to let the boy’s life return to him. What was the result? The widow proclaimed that Elijah was a man of God and the word of the Lord from Elijah’s mouth was true.
 
As Christians, let us bear fruit (Matthew 7:17-20) in encouraging others to live, cheering them on because tis the season to be jolly. Remember, for many people, holidays are difficult for various reasons. Psalm 139:11-12 says in our darkness it is light to God.  He has no darkness. Be the vessel of God to cheer someone on dispersing the darkness in their lives and bringing light.
 
Blessings, 
Karen