As Barb and I walked around in the store, we kept hearing chimes. I thought, “Well, it is Christmas time; that’s nice to have pretty chimes going on.” However, I thought it was a little strange that the chimes did not have a Christmas theme. Barb was a couple of isles over from me and she looked around trying to determine their source. I did the same thing. When we came together at the other end of the store, the chimes could still be heard and we commented to each other wondering where the chimes were coming from. We looked up and down, ceiling and walls, and still could not see anywhere they were coming from. We even commented to a store attendant who also heard the chimes, who looked around with a bewildered look on his face, only to offer no answer as to where they were coming from. I joked to Barbara that as long as we heard the chimes in this store, even though we could not determine their source, we are okay. But if we still hear those chimes in the next store, I think we have a real problem! Something is going on! We just resigned to the fact that we could not find where the chimes were coming from and we finished our shopping. At the counter we had the same person we had asked about the chimes earlier. I joked to him the same way as I had joked to Barbara. He did not laugh at my supposedly humorous comment. Instead, he looked at me rather intently, then looked down mid-way to my body and said “It sounds like it’s coming from you!” My first thought was, “What do you mean, man, no way could it be coming from me!” Then I remembered that earlier I had used the timer on my phone and had put it in the back pocket of my jeans. I pulled my phone out and sure enough, the timer was going off with the sound of the chimes. Talk about Christmas spirit – we all had a good laugh!
We have a New Year coming upon us. We will “ring out the old and ring in the new.” Now is our opportunity to determine to have lots of laughter in this New Year. By keeping our focus on Jesus and what he has done for us, by his payment already paid to heal our bodies and by his dying to remove our sins, when we receive and apply this in faith with thanksgiving, we can adopt a whole new outlook on life. He was resurrected in power to impart his completed work to us for our deliverance from oppression. That is in place for us. In the face of despair or joy, depression or happiness, we can choose to believe what Jesus did for all, and that it is finished! Let’s head into this New Year holding to Him, and let our chimes be praise and thanksgiving to Him!