It's Christmas Time!
It's Christmas time!
You might have guessed from the title that this post is in some way about Christmas. If so, you have guessed correctly. If not, there's still hope for you yet.
Seriously though, it is Christmas time, probably my favorite time of year. Christmas songs (especially Roger Whitaker's), eggnog, Christmas cookies, and more are all family traditions that add to the merriment of this particular holiday. Plus, In my family, December is a big month. Including nephews, nieces, my children, one aunt, and a brother-in-law, we have eight birthdays. I even have two more children with birthdays within the next 6 weeks following Christmas. Needless to say, we have a lot going on throughout the holiday season. Still, there's something about Christmas.
My dad used to tell me that weddings and funerals were where families were mostly likely to fight. In my limited experience with each, I'd have to agree (though more so at funerals.) Why? Various reasons, I suppose. At both, emotions can be high.
At weddings, people will sometimes show displeasure in the couple. Perhaps some one is not happy with another's choice of spouse. Another issue can be that persons that normally do well to avoid each other find themselves in the same space for too long and are simply unable to contain their mutual resentment, rather than simply focus his or her energy on being happy during a joyous occasion. The truth is, there can be numerous reasons for people to fight, even at a wedding. Funerals I've been too, however, have been far worse.
There's the material aspect of a funeral, where someone's things must be parted out. While this doesn't generally take place at the funeral, it certainly doesn't keep people from squabbling over it. Like the wedding, there can also be people that simply do not choose to get along when the focus should be on more important things. (No, not on dividing things!) Without fail, there seems alway be one person that remembers a person as they were, faults and all. This person is often confronted with anger by those that feel you shouldn't speak ill of the departed. Personally, we shouldn't go out of way to talk back of someone. But, the life he or she lived is the life he or she lived. Nothing will change that. But, I digress.
In my family, holidays have sometimes come in a close third to weddings and funeral. I come from a more than average size blended family. I have a total of six sibling (one of whom I've never met.) Four of us had lived fairly close to my parents for many years. Among us four, we've had fifteen children (at present). Including spouses, ex-spouses, in-laws, and extended family, it has been nothing unusual to have close to thirty people at my parents' house for a holiday get together.
Normally, having that many people in a gathering together, especially in my family, is like walking through an abandoned mine field. You know there are mines still out there. Many may already have exploded or been removed. Some could also have degraded to the point of no longer working. But walk around there long enough and you're bound to find a live one. Inevitably, someone always does, and it usually centers around politics.
We know that when a sensitive topic is broached that people can certainly be passionate. I, certainly, am among those people. Tempers flare, feelings get hurt, and people get loud. And that's okay. After all, aren't most holidays really about us?
Halloween, it's a day (in today's times) where people dress up for fun and children get to go around and get candy. It's a fun time. Thanksgiving, it's a day where we reflect on things we're thankful for, like family and friends. New Year's is when we're glad the old year is gone and can look forward to our futures. July fourth is a day where we celebrate our freedoms. Even Easter is about us, the Messiah dying to redeem us. Christmas, however, is not about us.
Now, before pass any judgements on me, hear me out. Christ was sent for us. But it's not until the Crucifixion and Resurrection that it was fulfilled. I have a slightly different view of Christmas, and while these things couldn't have happened without His birth, that still doesn't make Christmas about us. Before I get to my point, let's examine today's Christmas for a typical person.
Christmas stories – books, movies, etc. – often show someone that's under a lot of pressure at Christmas, good or bad. A Christmas Carol, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Santa Clause; on and on the list goes. All these movies tend to tell the stories of people who realized because of a Christmas miracle of some sort that their lives weren't being lived to the fullest. The stories beg us to look deep inside ourselves to find the person we should be, the one that loves others. While this is a commendable common theme in Christmas stories, if you watch enough of them, you soon realize that not all them even agree on what that means. But, as Ecclesiastes says, this too is meaningless. (See what I did there?)
For anyone that is having trouble finding his or her best self this Christmas, let me offer some words of comfort. It's okay, because that is not what Christmas is about.
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life." (NIV) (I added the caps back where they belong.)
Let us examine this again. "For God ... that He gave His ... " When we reach and truly begin to understand the birth of Christ, we understand that it's about God and his love for us. Christmas is not dependent upon mankind to be perfect, to make some change that suddenly makes us worthy of another's love as in the movies. It's because we aren't worthy that makes this holiday even more special.
Scripture records in Luke 6 that Christ tells others to love their enemies. He challenges us by saying if you love those who love you, what good is it? We should certainly love people who love us. What He's saying here is that to truly make a difference, we need to love those who do not love us, even those that hate us. He goes on to say that if we do these things, we will know that we are truly children of God. How does this relate?
God set this example for us by sending His Son. God gave His greatest possession, His only Son. The Almighty didn't send Christ because He knew our potential. Again, Christmas isn't about us. God has known our potential from the beginning. Instead, this is about God. He sent His Son at a time when the message of Christ could be spread throughout all the world. Christmas, instead, is about God's greatness, and God's love. Knowing this has given me a new perspective on Christmas. How so? I'm glad you asked!
It's not about me! At Christmas, I don't have to try to be anything different than who I am. It's not Halloween; I can take off the facade of who I sometimes pretend to be. It's not Thanksgiving; I don't have to present others with the appropriate list of things to be thankful for to keep from seeming ungrateful. It's not New Year; I'm not fretting over things I didn't get done last year while stressing over what I want to get done in the coming year. Instead, I can be in the moment. It's not the Fourth of July, where I celebrate freedom while feeling a like a slave to the demands of others in today's me, me, me culture. And, it's not Easter where I'm reminded of what my wrongdoing cost (though there is a very bright light in Easter.) Instead, I get to see think about that precious and innocent baby child that God sent in love.
In closing, I love Christmas because; I can be who God made me to be, I can be thankful for His love, I can remember the lessons of the past while looking at the hope we have in the future, I can enjoy the freedom we have in Him, and, because He first loved me, I can look on God's gift to us, the gift of His Son, and accept the redemption that is offered. That's what this holiday is truly about. No other holiday in the world can boast a gift of love quite like Christmas.
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