Christmas is a preparation to die in peace.

When you die, do you know what will happen to you? Donald Cargill, a faith hero in the history of the Presbyterian church in Scotland, knew exactly what was going to happen to him when he died. He was condemned for his Presbyterian faith and sentenced to the gallows in 1681, and beheaded in Edinburgh.

When he came to the scaffold, Cargill said these words, because he had faith and he knew where he was going after this life: As the drums were beaten and the executioner was ready to fulfil his gruesome task, he clearly said:
Now I am near to getting to my crown, which shall be sure; for I bless the Lord, and desire all of you to bless Him that He hath brought me here, and makes me triumph over devils, and men, and sin -- they shall wound me no more. I forgive all men the wrongs they have done to me, and pray the Lord may forgive all the wrongs that anyone have done against Him. I pray that sufferers may be kept from sin, and helped to know their duty.
Farewell reading and preaching, praying and believing, wanderings, reproaches, and sufferings. Welcome unspeakable joy full of glory.

Will you be able to speak similar words when the day comes when you will meet the Lord face to face?

In Luke 2: 29 we read a comparable statement by a faith hero who lived during the times when Christ was born. His name was Simeon and he was an elderly man. He too was ready to die, because he knew exactly what was going to happen to him after death. He says,
Luke 2:29 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace."
"Let me die," he says. "Let me die in peace."

"Peace" can mean many things. For those living in war-stricken areas it would most probably mean the absence of military activity and the end of violence.

But the peace that Simeon speaks about here (just like the peace that Donald Cargill experienced on the gallows) is so much more than only the end of strife after warring madness.
No, Simeon speaks of the peace that believing men and women experience when they pass on to be with God. He speaks about the perfect peace when we go to be with Christ.

Simeon saw the Messiah in the temple on the 8th day after his birth. He took Jesus into his arms and saw the Comfort promised to God’s people to be real, to be born a human being - the beginning of the Messiah’s ministry of salvation. True peace that cannot be taken from us, even by death, is to meet the Christ of God and to start living in his presence, knowing his peace will be perfected when we see Christ the Lord, face to face.

"Let me die in peace," says Simeon. Simeon knew that he would receive the crown of righteousness (2 Tim 4:8) in a place of glory. This is the peace he is talking about.

Do you know this peace? Do you know that you too will go to be with Jesus when you die? Only when you know this, Christmas truly happened in your heart and in your soul.
Then you have been prepared to live the joyous Christmas life here – and for all eternity.