Well, according to Andy Williams (or Johnny Mathis or Michael Buble or whoever you usually listen to croon the song) it’s the most wonderful time of the year!! Yes, it’s December 13th, my finals are over, snow is on the forecast, and everywhere you look lights are twinkling, wreathes are being hung, signs are advertising peppermint mochas and pictures with Santa and UPS drivers are frantically rushing around trying to make all their deliveries.
The Christmas season is upon us. It is a time of joy and excitement, of rushing and bustling and celebrating and laughing. Decorating cookies, getting cards in the mail, singing Christmas carols and wrapping presents! What could be better?!?
And yet, I know that for many, Christmas isn’t all candy canes and sugar plums. Holidays can come with huge expectations and maybe you just don’t feel like you can meet them this year. Or perhaps it’s hard to celebrate when you’ve recently lost a loved one, or a job, or a friend. Maybe it’s just that you don’t feel the joy that you felt as a kid. And you wonder if you ever will again.
I’ve been there once or twice. And you know what? Don’t let it bring you down. Because those feelings are exactly what Christmas is about.
Ok, ok, before you choke on your gingerbread latte and slam your laptop shut, hear me out.
Why did Jesus come to this earth?
He came because we were lost and broken, a world without joy and without hope. He came because we fell, so helplessly short, of his glory and his perfection. He came because we needed him. We needed a savior.
As my favorite Christmas carol, O Come O Come Emmanuel so beautifully puts it, he came because we were captive, mourning in lonely exile. He came because our spirits were engulfed in gloomy clouds of night and destined for death. He came because he, and only he, could open wide our heavenly home, and forever close the path of misery.
As was prophesied about Him,
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.” -Isaiah 42:1-4
As Jesus himself stated,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” -Luke 4:18
As the angel Gabriel told Joseph, “She will give birth to a son, and you are call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” -Matthew 1:21
If Christmas is about Jesus coming, and Jesus came to save us from our sins, to proclaim good news to the poor in spirit, and to set free those who are oppressed, then feeling captive and lowly of heart, and being overwhelmed by the sin of this world doesn’t exclude you from the spirit of Christmas, it qualifies you for it.
On the night Jesus was born, who did the angels appear to, to proclaim the Saviors birth? Shepherds. The uneducated, dirty, stinky rejects of Jerusalem. God invited these simple men to the first Christmas. And he invites you too, every year, no matter your position or state.
“Come ye lofty, come ye lowly. Let your songs of gladness ring; in a stable lies the Holy, in a manger rests the King. See in Mary’s arms reposing, Christ by highest heaven adored: Come, your circle round Him closing, humble hearts that love the Lord.”
Just because Burl Ives said to have a holly, jolly Christmas, doesn’t mean that if you’re not feeling holly and jolly then you’re automatically a scrooge. What does Jesus say? He says “come, all you who are weary and heavy laden. And I will give you rest.” -Matthew 11:28
As much as I love the lights, and the trees, and the Christmas carols, and timeless Christmas movies, I know that isn’t what the season is about. Because when new years comes around, and the cookies have been eaten, and the magic fades and the decorations come down, we are forced to move on. But the real beauty-the real reason for Christmas-never fades. The glorious truth that the son of God came for us to save us from our sins-that never goes away.
So don’t worry if aren’t feeling too merry and bright this year. You can have true joy, beyond all the trimmings and trappings. The Messiah came. He came. And that is enough.
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord!” -Isaiah 40:1-3
Yes!! Such beautiful hope! O Come O Come Emmanuel is one of my favorites too!!
Aww cool!! ❤️