Thoughts on Christmas

All the tinsel and lights
make the holidays nice
but the real gift is You.

Its Christmas. When you go to the mall, you see stressed shoppers exchanging half-hearted "holiday greetings" (in lieu of the politically incorrect "Merry Christmas") and snatching up large quantities of expensive items that they will use to spread holiday cheer while they max out credit cards in an attempt to prove love to friends and family and enemies.

When entering December, it is culturally expected that happiness and joy and peace will abound. Despite rainy and cold days, the hot chocolate and twinkling lights and Christmas carols are supposed to drown out any and all negative feelings. You're supposed to be happy. Its the season of parties, of course the world is wonderful and life is good.

But what if its not? What about the people who are hurting? The ones who are mourning a death or dealing with a job loss or facing a health obstacle? What about them?

Its been a dramatic year for me. I do sometimes selfishly want to feel sorry for myself, but then I end up pitying myself. I'll admit it: at first I was loathe to face December with all its happy people and fancy parties and laughing Santas. I just didn't really feel like celebrating. There's a lot of sin in the world, a lot of war and pain and hurt and bad things -- and I was reminded of that many times this year in various circumstances I found myself in. Christmas festivities didn't really interest me.

But then I realized a fundamental truth: we are celebrating Jesus' birth. Stop. Think about it. Breathe that in. Jesus came into the world as a baby so that he could die on the cross to take on Himself the punishment for our sins. He came so that we can live victorious and not in defeat. At Christmas, I'm not celebrating the end of another year or the soon beginning of a new year (though those are good things, too) -- I am, in fact, celebrating that I don't have to live defeated by the sin in this world.

Read that again: I am celebrating Jesus' birth and the fact that I don't have to live defeated by the sin in this world.

Sure, its been a tough year. Yes, people have let me down and circumstances haven't gone the way I thought they would. But, despite all that I. Can. Live. Victoriously. And so I will.

And because of His coming, I celebrate.

And so this Christmas I'll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life
[I Celebrate the Day by RelientK]