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I can hear Allie say, “This will be the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!” She says things like that and it catches me by surprise every time. The other day she ordered an ordinary hamburger, but once again she said, “This is the best hamburger EVER!” I love that. I, too, want the best Christmas ever.

For kids, it starts (as early as October) with the advertising. “Your little dino lover’s imagination gets a gigantic boost from the bony Imaginext Ultra T-Rex, with 3 Power Pads to bring him roaring to life.”  Or, “It is the dream-come-true trip to Italy. Giovanna meets the Journey Girls and they become instant BFFs! Giovanna shows off her style in a stunning crimson gown with shimmering jewels . . . and accessories!”

What would it take for you to have the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER?

On one Christmas décor blog I read: “Make Christmas time a dream come true. Putting up the Christmas decorations in your home—whether you’re dressing the tree or stringing garlands from your ceilings—is so much fun, and it’s important to get the best decorations for your Christmas.”

Well, at the Laurie home this year, I say we take a pass on their advice and the importance of getting the best decorations at our house. I will put up lights, and garland, and decorate the tree. We also place a lighted manger scene in our yard, under the olive tree, just so those who drive by to look at our lights will know whose birthday we celebrate.

We like to load the car up with the grandkids, maybe fill a thermos with hot cocoa, and drive around to “ooh” and “aah” at the Christmas lights. It’s fun! Like watching a version of the reality show, The Great Christmas Light Fight in our own neighborhood. It’s magical (at times bizarre) and for me, mischievously indulgent to imagine the electric bills come January. Personally, I’d like to give a prize to one guy in the neighborhood who had the guts to give a minimal nod to the season with a sign stuck in his front lawn inscribed with Ebenezer Scrooge’s “Bah Humbug“.

I, too, can say, “Bah Humbug.” Not to Christmas, not even to the pretty lights and trees. But bah humbug to all the trappings of artificial happiness. Bah humbug to fake Christmas joy and artificial cheer that dissipates as soon as the lights are unplugged.

This year, I will write Happy Christmas on my cards. The world needs to know it is possible. And like Allie, I want to exclaim this will the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER! We can learn so much from children who haven’t lost their sense of wonder and hope. A hope that’s going to deliver what it promises, even better than an Imaginext Ultra T-Rex under the tree. (Though they may not fully know that yet.) A hope that came to this world two thousand years ago as a glorious surprise.

Fake Christmas happiness has nothing to offer families who’ve lost, or will lose, loved ones this Christmas. Our world that is mourning the tragic events in Paris and now San Bernardino, needs to know there is real happiness waiting to be received, and that God did—and does—bring lasting, transcendent happiness. He dealt with our problem in a different, most unexpected way: He was born as a baby, so He could grow up as a man and die in our place. And He is going to put the world right again. He removed the curse of sin by dying for it, and one day soon He is going to establish truth and justice on the earth.

When we think of the town of Bethlehem so long ago, and the innocent children who were murdered, it is hard to believe God was putting the world right again. But wicked King Herod didn’t get the last word. And neither will those terrorists get the last word. Nor will cancer, nor will pain, nor whatever is causing you sadness get the last word.

A new king has been born, and He gets the last word.

So never think, “Well, that’s just the way it is. The world has evolved into a dangerous, sad place and we just need to figure out how to deal with it . . . but too bad for those families who’ve lost loved ones in the shootings.” That would be the last word, but the good news is, it’s not the last word.

This Christmas season, some of you feel like you have to choose between the joy of Christmas and the pain of tragic loss. You don’t. The happiness and hope of Christmas is the only way to deal with the pain of Paris and the senseless bloodshed in San Bernardino.

A king has been born who is going to remove the curse altogether. And then, in the words of JRR Tolkien, “All the sad things will come untrue.”

This is going to be the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER! Jesus says so . . . and we are one year closer to the ultimate Christmas. We can sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come! No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.”