Monday, December 9, 2013

Have You Missed Christmas?

I’m afraid a lot of people will miss Christmas this year, even though they’re busy shopping, cooking, preparing, enjoying parties and going to church events. In the midst of all the advertising and all the hype, the point of Christmas too often gets lost for many of us.

Here are three ways you can miss the point of Christmas.

ü You miss the point of Christmas if you think it is receiving.
     Receiving is a major part of the excitement of Christmas. Children all over America can’t wait to see what’s under the tree for them. Even adults are not above getting excited when they expect a special gift, and very few people don’t enjoy unwrapping a present. There is nothing wrong with the anticipation of receiving Christmas gifts, but receiving gifts is not the most important part of Christmas… even though it is easy to get carried away with the thought of getting stuff.

ü You miss the point of Christmas if you think it is giving.
For adults the opportunity to give is likely the biggest turn on of Christmas. The look of delight in the eyes of someone who just got what they “always wanted” gives the giver rich pleasure. When the gift you give is right, it gives at least as much pleasure to the giver as it does the receiver. Giving can also be the biggest pain. Shopping is often hectic, less than fun, and sometimes the bill for Christmas gifts destroys the family budget for the entire year. Also, giving loses its allure when you feel obligated to give a gift to somebody you don’t really know or like very much. (i.e. cousin Martha’s fourth husband, or the aunt who spends more on her shoes than you do on your rent)

The traditions of giving and receiving have their roots in the Christmas story. They reflect the gifts the wise men gave and, of course, God’s gift of His Son to all mankind, but these traditions are not the point of Christmas.

ü You miss the point of Christmas if you think it is family.
The classic mental picture of the perfect Christmas is the perfect family in their perfect floor length robes worn over their clean and pressed pajamas with their hair perfectly in place, in the perfect living room, with their perfect tree with a perfect fire in their fireplace drinking perfect coffee and hot chocolate and neatly unwrapping their perfectly wrapped packages while it gently snows perfectly big flakes outside the perfect landscape window. However, most of us don’t have families exactly like that. Some of us don’t have family at all. Others are separated from their families by physical or emotional distance. For these people the joyous Christmas season is a stressful, even depressing time. That is not what God intended. Obviously, happy times for families are good, but the angel said the good news was for all the people. The point of Christmas is for the unattached as much as it is for the dream family.

The point of Christmas is God becoming a man so that we can become like Him.     
Christmas is remembering the unique point in history when God came to live among us. As John put it in the first chapter of his Gospel, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Creator and King of the Universe chose to make a lowly entrance. Instead of sliding down a sunbeam or being born in a beautiful palace, he chose to come to a stable surrounded by ordinary people. He became one of us. Even more to the point than His entrance were His subsequent life, death and resurrection. It would be no exaggeration to say that the point of Christmas is actually Easter. Perhaps Paul expresses the point of Christmas best.

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:19-20 (NIV)

God came to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. God came in Jesus to reconcile us to Himself, to forgive us of our sins and wipe out the barrier they cause between God and us. In Jesus, God showed, once and for all, the extent of His love for us. The coming of Jesus as a man serves to make us aware that this earth, this life, this physical universe is not all there is. There is more to life than what our senses can observe. Finally, Jesus came to save us from our selfish paths that all lead to self-destruction, and to make us fit to spend eternity with Him. He shows us the way, because He is the Way.

Please don’t miss the point of Christmas! It is a package addressed to you! Go ahead open it!

*** If you are looking for an inspirational Christmas story, I invite you to visit my blog "Christmas at Tiny Naylor's" from December 2012; "Bill the Innkeeper" and "An Uncertain Christmas" from December 2011.