Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. There are countless amazing memories associated with it. I can remember my desire for it to come as a child was only measured by my simultaneous wish for the season to go on forever.
This is my first year not celebrating Christmas with my immediate family on Christmas day. It’s a strange step in the process of growing up.
I am still surrounded by family this year, in many countries by many means, many of them not related to me biologically. I exchange gifts and Christmas memories, I partake in the anticipation of advent, I am loved and love in return.
It’s had me thinking a lot about intentionality through the season. Deciding where to spend the holiday was largely a question of where I would find a sense of “home.” Last week, a friend was sharing that this season has found him meditating on the glory of God in the Christmas story. I was convicted. I realized I was focused on many of the secondary aspects of Christmas. What country I would be in, who I was with, what food I ate, what movies I watched: they are all important things or beloved traditions. To consider them is not wrong.
I realized in the shuffle though my eyes had not been fixed upon the burning gospel core of Christmas. It’s a typical Christmas cliché: don’t get caught up in the materialism or commercialism of the season. Remember the true meaning of Christmas.
We then ascribe things like family, tradition, and memories to that meaning. None of those things, in the end, have much to do with the true catalyst for this celebration. As I am learning with time, all of those things can be lost, or taken far away, or become irrelevant.
However, this is Christmas: Emmanuel, God with us. That God came down to earth in human form. That He not only calls to us, but He came to us. To live thirty-three years of agonizing pain and rapturous joy. To die, terribly and tragically, and forever change the course of history and eternity.
Last night, our advent reading included the words from Luke 2
And Mary wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, for there was no place for them in the inn.
There was no place for them. God on earth, and no one made a place for Him but two humble and now discredited individuals who’s lives were turned upside down the day an angel showed up with incredible and terrifying news.
It cost Mary and Joseph a lot to make that place for Him. Their reputations, the place they called home, possibly their financial status. They gave it away to say, “yes” to the work of the Savior in our world.
It draws my attention to my own life. Am I making a place for Him? Am I willing to truly invite Him in as a guest in my life, even when the price begins to look very high? I am challenged by Mary, who could have never envisioned all the repercussions from her girlhood home as she said “Be it unto me.” Even as her whole world fell apart in the coming months, and then again years later, she treasured these events in her heart and praised God. She built altars to His goodness and clung to them in the darkness.
Christmas is still one of my favorite times of year. I am blessed that it has always been time of warmth and joy for me. I love the food and family and friends and even the terrible Hallmark movies.
I feel a solemnity this year. The weight of this night that we sing about thousands of years later. God piercing into the timeline of our lives.
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Christ the Lord.
So beautiful. Thank you and God bless you.
It’s been a while since you updated your blog. Are you okay?
Hi David! I am well. Life is very full of both challenges and blessings. In all that busy-ness most things feel either too trivial to be updating people on or too vast to condense down into a blogpost. But thanks for the reminder that people are reading! It’s a good incentive to get back to writing more. Hopefully I’ll have more up here very soon!
Bethany, I had to reply to your post. What I want you to know is that, at least for me, I am more interested in you than what you are doing. The old saying is appropriate, that we are human beings not human doings. That is why the scripture says we are His children not because of what we do or don’t do but by His Grace. And you were so correct in your March 10th blog post that God is so associated with His attributes that when we receive His Grace (or Love) we are receiving Him. So don’t be as focused on updates on the mission, although I am interested, but speak out of your heart and your words will be filled with His Spirit and when I read those words I’ll touch the heart of God… because I’ll be touching your heart… and they really are the same. Love you.