Who deserves a Christmas present??????

...the other evening as I was returning home I was listening to the local station that has been playing Christmas music 24/7 since before Thanksgiving. My wife says there are only 50 Christmas songs but thousands of remakes and anybody can remake one. They shouldn’t but they do. I don’t know about that but You’re a Mean one Mr. Grinch Began to play. According to Wikipedia:

"You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" is a Christmas song that was originally written and composed for the 1966 cartoon special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The lyrics were written by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, the music was composed by Albert Hague, and the song was performed by Thurl Ravenscroft. The song's lyrics describe the Grinch as being foul, bad-mannered and sinister using increasingly creative metaphors and synonyms, beginning with the opening line "you're a mean one, Mister Grinch". The song has six verses.

I had not heard the song in years and we listened to all of the non-rhyming words of all six verses.

 The song begins

You're a mean one, Mister Grinch You really are a heel You're as cuddly as cactus You're as charming as an eel Mister Grinch You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel. You're a monster, Mister Grinch… I wouldn't touch you with a Thirty-nine and a half foot pole… You're a foul one, Mister Grinch You're a nasty-wasty skunk… You have all the tender sweetness of A seasick crocodile Mister Grinch…Given the choice between the two of you I'd take the seasick crocodile…

The last verse #6 puts the stink in the stunk with…

You nauseate me, Mister Grinch, With a nauseous super "naus" You're a crooked jerky  jockey and you drive a crooked horse Mister Grinch.

You're a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich With arsenic sauce.

That guy is bad! He definitely does not deserve a Christmas present. He is the one who would steal presents from sweet children.

Or does he?

Does anyone deserve a Christmas present?

Well I do! I’ve been good (for the most part more nice than naughty). I deserve………a……………..Christmas     pre………. No, I really don’t deserve a Christmas present. At times I am all of those vile descriptions of Mr. Grinch. If we are brutally honest about ourselves, that could be said of each and everyone of us.

Could it not? No one really deserves a Christmas present and yet!

We get one anyway because we do not deserve it. That is called Grace.

That IS the Christmas story even for Mr. Grinch! No one deserves a Christmas gift but “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.”

Isn’t that just like our DAD!

I wish you a very merry Christmas blessed beyond measure because you unwrap more of Jesus than ever before!

The Rev