Did you decorate for Christmas early this year?
Reports around these parts were that tree farms were selling out early this year. At least a week before Thanksgiving I saw many tress in the windows of homes near me. Each one I passed filled me with the warm, familiar glow of hope. I think many of us decorated early attempting to find that nostalgia as we are searching for some semblance of normal, something familiar that gives us comfort.
We've not been to craft fairs, shopping sprees, and Black Friday sales this year. There were no cantatas or Christmas concerts to perform or attend. Work parties, Christmas parties with friends and loved ones have all been canceled. These things have become traditions in our annual celebrations. What would Christmas be without them? I found myself grumbling and complaining and looking forward to turning the page on the calendar... Maybe I should just hibernate until this chaotic, unsettled year is over.
Christmas was always a big deal when I was kid. My mother pulled out all the stops. Nothing was left untouched by Christmas magic. Tree decorating was a party night accompanied by a tray of cookies and treats, eggnog and tinsel.
I have kept that tradition with my own children. Even though they all live elsewhere now we still held the tradition this year with two of our daughters coming to spend an evening with us. We gathered around cookies and familiar decorations, each carrying memories and stories.
While the world has spiraled out of control outside our front door the things that bind us drew us together to prepare for the celebration of Christmas.
When my family comes home and shuts the door I want all that other stuff left outside-it can wait. Inside, it is Christmas.
We don't celebrate because of or to do all those other fun things. Christmas has not been canceled! We keep Christmas because of the very name sake of the holiday-Christ. Our hope is not in our government, our medicine, or our masks. My hope, my reason for celebration, is a birthday celebration of Jesus. And there is where I was reminded of the source of true joy.
I remembered the turning point for the Grinch in Dr. Suess's How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The Grinch had done everything in his earthly power to destroy the spirit of a people who extravagantly celebrated Christmas. Wasn't he surprised, baffled, and ultimately changed when he heard their voices raise in joy.
And then in Suess rhyme I penned a new line...
They haven't stopped Christmas from coming!
It came!
It came without plays,
without
Christmas markets.
It came without festivals,
parties,
or concerts!
It came!
He came!
Jesus didn't come and sacrifice himself for me so that I could do all those many things that I fill my Christmases with. He came to remove the debt of my rebellion against the one, true God. He came to give me a peace that no earthly Grinch can steal. He came to make me a child a God; an heir of a home that is not of this world. He came to give me a mission and that mission is to glorify Him. I cannot do that grumbling about all the things I think I am missing, For truly, there is nothing missing, nothing I lack.
He has given me everything I need.
so that we may know him who is true;
and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.
He is the true God
and
eternal life.
Praying that your celebrations are filled with the miraculous blessing of knowing this
Christ of Christmas.
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