One
thing that always bugged me about Christmas is how everybody
wants everything.
I
want a new TV. I want new clothes. I want this one huge thing that we can’t
afford right now. I want to have a
party. I want to cook dinner for thirty
people, bake hundreds of cookies, buy gifts for the faceless and nameless
needy, put up a Christmas tree and somehow find the time to decorate my house
like you just walked into a Christmas village.
And I want to do it all in three weeks, preferably with Christmas music
playing the background at all times.
Chestnuts and sleigh bells and fa-la-freakin’-la.
Every
year there is more to want, and it bugs me because I often not only have to
deal with my own wants, but as the leader of a household, I have to make sure other
people’s wants happen, too.
It’s
easy to get caught up in the tangle of Christmas. What will make me happy this year? What will make them happy? What’s going to
survive the new year and still be around by July? Are our desires real?
Jesus
gets lost in the wants every year. We
all know he is there, know that he is the reason for the season. How I hate that phrase. It’s so trite, so easy to flick off the
tongue and forget as soon as it’s said.
There’s no better reason for the season, yet we mention Jesus like we
would an unwilling birthday boy we are throwing a party for regardless of his
desires. The party is really for us, and
the fact that it’s his birthday makes us feel better about being excessive.
Is
Christmas about us or about Jesus? After
all, he came to us as a gift – shouldn’t we go over the top to celebrate that? The Bible is full of good reasons to
celebrate, God-sanctioned festivals and extravagant partying that were built
into the Israelites’ very way of life.
The
truth is, Jesus is worth our extravagance.
God’s grace is extravagant for us, and though we can never repay it, at
Christmas it sure seems like everyone is trying. The trouble is that often our extravagance is
not because of what Jesus did for us. We
are being extravagant because we want
to be.
So
what do we do? How do we decipher what
is real and what is merely feeding into our insatiable hunger for more?
For
me, checking my heart is the first step.
Am I thankful for what God has given me?
Am I doing this for Jesus? Am I
really celebrating Christmas the way it should be celebrated, the way he
intended, the way he intends for me? How
does what I am doing feel in my heart? Am I finding joy in this?
I
have to say that some years I’m not. I’m
not enjoying Christmas. It’s too much,
too fast, too loud. I can’t catch up and
it makes me cranky. What’s more, I haven’t
seen Jesus once, and this is his party.
I’m a total buzz kill at Christmas sometimes.
This
year I’m okay. I feel calmer, feel less
like certain things have to be done to have the perfect Christmas. It’s probably just because I’m getting older,
and I’m tired of complaining about it.
It could be that I feel like I have more of a handle on things, that I
planned better. It could be because I’ve
let a lot of things go that stress me out.
But
maybe it’s also because I’m seeing it in a different light this year. This year more than ever, I’m seeing Christmas
as a time to thank God for all that he has given us, a time to consider who I
am in Christ and what that looks like – what God intends for me. I’m seeing Christmas as a gift, and an
appropriate time to celebrate.
After
all, this is Jesus’ party. This year,
like every other, his life trumps all.
This year, I think I’m really feeling it.
*******
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him, and nothing was created
except through him. The Word gave life
to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and
the darkness can never extinguish it.
God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that
everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself
was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who
gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t
recognize him. He came to
his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to
become children of God. They are
reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a
birth that comes from God.
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full
of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory
of the Father’s one and only Son.
John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is
the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far
greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’”
From his abundance we have all
received one gracious blessing after another. For the law was given
through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus
Christ. No one has
ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
John
1:1-16 (NLT)
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