Merry Christmas! How often have you heard that recently? Are you feeling merry right now? Some people are. But others get tired of hearing “Merry Christmas” by this point in the season. Why?
Many of us want to decide for ourselves whether to have a “nice day” or a “Merry Christmas.” We instinctively know it can’t just be conferred upon us by a passing stranger or someone who has been trained well for their seasonal job.
For many, having someone wish them a Merry Christmas only emphasizes the fact they do not feel so merry. When you’ve just lost someone you love, you’re sick, your job is in peril or you’re just mad about life in general, being told to be merry rubs us the wrong way.
In fact, merry does not come to us from the outside. It starts inside of us … rising up like a small giggle, that turns into a tentative “hee … hee” that somehow crescendos into a full bellied “Ha … Ha … Ha” and finally has us having a full bodied experience of slapping knees, clapping hands, holding our sides, and sometimes laughing until we cry. Now that is merry!
I invite you to come along, as we read Chapter Seventeen of Christmas of Discovery! There you will hear the story of some interesting “missionaries,” who brought us the Merry. We’ll look at where real merriment comes from and why that Well of Wonder never dries up!
Chapter Seventeen can be heard by clicking on the title, The Season of Merry!
