1 Day to Christmas, Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2025

“The Day Before the Best Day Ever”

The day before the big day is finally here.  What a journey this season has been. The excitement has been building for weeks, and the best day is still ahead.

One of our goals this Advent season has been to focus on the idea of the Best Day Ever. Throughout the month, we have reflected on moments and experiences that caused a particular day in our past to stand out as the best. All along, the deeper purpose has been to point us toward Christmas and the coming of the Lord.

Along the way, we have learned something important. Throughout our lives, we experience many best days.  And often, when a new best day arrives, we discover it is even better than the one before.  In other words, our best day is likely still ahead of us, not behind us, even when it feels impossible.

Speaking as the one who dreamed up this theme in hopes of drawing people into Christmas, I know I have experienced some truly wonderful holidays.  A few of them sit high on a pedestal in my memory, appearing almost perfect and untouched by time.  However, I also know memory can soften the rough edges. Those days were meaningful, but they were never flawless.  They simply look perfect from a distance.

The true Best Day Ever will be the day the Lord calls us home.  Nothing surpasses the day when pain, sorrow, and suffering finally come to an end.  Until that day arrives, God continues to give us moments of deep beauty and joy.  Some are so good they feel nearly perfect, and they are blessings to be received with gratitude.

But to believe that God is finished blessing us would be to believe God is finished with us.  As long as we are here, God still has purpose for our lives.  Even if that purpose is as simple as taking a few more breaths for the sake of someone we love, it still matters.

On this Christmas Eve, we remember Mary and Joseph on their journey to Bethlehem.  They were traveling toward their Best Day, though they did not yet know it.  They only knew that God was about to entrust them with a miracle.  Challenges still lay ahead.  Life would not suddenly become easy.  But the world would be changed forever because they did not give up.  They kept going.

One more day to Christmas.  One more step toward the Best Day Ever.  May we, too, keep going, trusting that God is still working, still blessing, and still leading us forward.

“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.  (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)  And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.”  (Luke 2:1-5, KJV)