Yeah, I know it’s in the headline, but you can’t leave out what you’re leaving out unless you mention it, and then leave it out. Which I only will in the headline.

As you may imagine if you’ve read me at least a couple of times, this will be the most difficult column I write all year.

Just kidding.

Plus, I’m really a sweetheart at heart. And to those of you about ready to raise and peck your keyboards in objection, I say one thing: Just give me a try. And if this column convinces you I’m not the ogre you’ve made me out to be over the years, just think of the gift I’ll be giving you soon: 52 of these musings of wit, wisdom and wonkiness for 2025.

Just know more than a few columns in the coming year will be on the topic we shall not name. And I am sure this statement alone will depress our one survey respondent who said, “Less MAGA type stories including Craig……other than that—perfect.” The dots are to spare feelings of someone close to the paper, even though the comment misses its mark entirely as I must believe what our reader is referring to are opinion columns, not stories.

And in this paper, opinion columns get a lot of leeway, especially mine. Plus, all you’ve got to do is turn the page.

Regardless, I’m going to keep up the “perfection” while doubling down on my opinions, which I’ve held dear for decades and well before MAGA arrived on the scene and began living rent-free in all-too-many heads the past nine years. It’s not about MAGA when I start pecking, dear reader. It’s about freedom.

Even more, it’s not about freedom on parchment related to the topic that shall not be named, it’s about freedom on whatever those ancient scrolls are written upon. Because if you want to place blame on where my thoughts come from, start with a humble beginning in a manger in the town of Bethlehem.

Then again, perhaps it began in a garden, or outside an ark under a rainbow, the other ark in a desert leading the masses, a lion’s den or fiery furnace, in a prison in Patmos or Phillipi or in a room full of scared believers hiding until the flames flickered above their heads.

If you don’t know where this is going, allow me to help. My feelings on freedom came to life in Bethlehem, were practiced across Judea, cemented on Golgotha and perfected when the stone was rolled away.

And while it might not be surprising to my survey commenter or many others that I’m talking about my faith in Jesus Christ, it may come as a surprise to many that I believe, practice and share the gifts given to me by God with the Grand Valley through this paper. I look at it as a mission.

So, why wouldn’t I also share the greatest gift God gave me in a column? Especially at this time of year.

And that’s the “story” (see what I did there?) of sending his Son to redeem and save me and all who believe. So, in this time when we celebrate the world’s greatest birth, allow me to wish you the blessings of Advent leading up to the day we celebrate our Messiah’s birth: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.

This takes me back to Christmas Eve as a student at Zion Lutheran School, where the schoolkids would tell the story of Christ’s birth to a packed church of nervous and proud parents, old congregants who knew the old, German hymns by heart, guests and many others – some hearing the story for the first time. Then again, everything Christmas does.

So, I wish you and your loved ones the Hope in God’s plans of Jeremiah 29:11 and His assurance in Hebrews 11:1.

I pray for your Peace in our troubled world from John 16:33 and which transcends all in Philippians 4:7.

I bid you Joy in your trials from James 1:2-3 and of the Angels’ message not just for the season but in your lives of Luke 2:10-11.

And finally, I ask you are filled with the Love only God can provide in sending his Son from 1 John 4:19 and in his Son’s greatest commandments from Mark 12:28-29.

Some may say it’s not the job of a newspaper to promote the story of Christmas or the wisdom of the Holy Bible in anything it prints. I guess that’s fine for some in the ink-by-the-barrel business, but that’s not why I believe I’m in this business. That doesn’t mean I’m printing papers to preach to you – or the choir. But I do believe I am in this business to bring you the Truth. And yes, it’s capitalized because the Truth to me is not only a fact, but a Savior who lived 2,000 years ago.

I’ve been blessed with the gift of writing and publishing, and I also believe every good and perfect gift comes from my Father of Lights. Most times the gifts you receive are in a news story, and every so often the truth comes in my little slice of Heaven in the Business Times called a column.

So why not wish you the gifts of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love? After all, I’m just His messenger.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com