MY CHANGING VIEW OF CHRISTMAS

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday.  Since I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, when I was a young child, Christmas for me was all about Santa.  The anticipation of Christmas centered around when Santa would come, and what he would bring me, and not much else.

As I got older, Christmas meant different things, like the anticipation of company for dinner, and the foods we would eat that we only ate at Christmastime.  It included the excitement of going into New York City with my brother and my dad on Christmas Eve.  Mom had to work, so early in the morning the three of us would board a bus and head for the city. Before we did anything else, we’d stop at the Horn and Hardart cafeteria on 42^nd street and have breakfast.  That was always a fun experience all by itself.

My dad always received his Christmas bonus the day before Christmas Eve, so in addition to simply going into the city, we always had the anticipation of some special treat Dad would buy us with his bonus.  One year we went to Radio City, another year we went on a shopping spree at Macy’s where I picked out a camel coat with a fake fur collar. 

When Jim and I were first married, Christmas became about buying presents for each other, and others in the family.  However, not long before our first daughter Amy arrived, we became believers in Jesus, and Christmas took on a whole new meaning.

Now Christmas was about Jesus, the gift God gave US.  Of course Jim and I still gave each other gifts, and we also had gifts for our girls, but we also tried to center the celebration around the coming of Jesus.  On Christmas Eve we read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and we each took a part – dressing in costumes and all, and acted it out as we read it.  Jim, the only man among us, was usually Joseph.  But I have photos from various years when the girls and I played angels or Mary.  We always had a cake with candles so that we could sing Jesus the Happy Birthday song to celebrate the evening of His birth.  Church was also  an important part of our Christmas celebration. 

With no small children at home now, and only grown children to shop for, Christmas is still about Jesus, even though there is no family Christmas drama to be enacted from the Gospel of Luke, and no birthday cake for Jesus.  We still go to Christmas Eve services and we go again on Christmas day, if it falls on a Sunday.

But we have scaled down our shopping.  At least part of the reason for this is that having working in several retail stores over the years, I’ve become jaded about the whole retail thing. The store owners really don’t care about making our Christmas one our loved ones will never forget, they’re really just about selling “stuff”.

I’m mentally overloaded by a bombardment of November and December commercials that play on my supposed need to buy this or that thing, some “must have” for which my family members will love me.  Before it even begins, I’m tired of the frenzied rushing most people engage in in this season of “shop till you drop”.   Isn’t this supposed to be the season of “Peace on Earth”?  But most of all I’m sad about the absence of the sacred in a holiday season the existence of which centers around the sacred - the birth of Jesus.

Like a tornado that sucks everything into its path, the craziness of the season can whip me into a frenzy too, making it so hard to focus on Jesus and the blessedness of His coming.  That is the TRUE meaning of Christmas after all.

So every year I try to stave off the craziness by doing the very same thing.  I get out my copy of a book called, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and read it devotionally.  From the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas arrives, I can be found in some quiet room in our house, spending a portion of every day, reading the book and worshipping Jesus. 

The title gives a hint that the focus of “O Come All Ye Faithful” centers around the sacred music of the season.  For each carol there is a page that includes the words of all the verses.  Then there is a devotional for each, as well as some background on the author of the music and the words, written by Joni Eareckson Tada, John MacArthur, and Robert or Bobbie Wolgemuth.  I never tire of reading this lovely book because it immerses me in the true meaning of the Christmas season. 

One of my favorite carols is not the most familiar by any stretch, probably because of its somber tone, but its words bring me right into the presence of the Lord.

It’s called, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”.   Joni Eareckson Tada, in writing her comments for this carol, speaks of the importance of silence in which to contemplate the Christmas season.  For the month of December, she tries to keep her calendar clear of busyness, and gives this advice to those who also feel the tug of busyness:

“Stop, look, listen, and be still before the Lord.  When you discover yourself becoming dulled to the joys of this season, stop.  Slow down the pace.  Make moments when you just look and listen. . . . Stop the chatter and clatter.  Jesus has entered history.”

That’s exactly what I do when I read through the words of this, my favorite carol. I slow down, listen and be still before the Lord.  There is too much of the sacred in the season to let busyness and noise crowd out the news:  Jesus has entered history.  Let all mortal flesh keep silence.

 

“Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly minded, but with blessing in His hand,

Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand.”

It is in silence, not in busyness, not in the frenzy of shopping, that I want to spend the season leading up to Christmas.  It is in silence that I want to contemplate the awesomeness of Christ’s coming. I want to set aside the things of earth that normally occupy my mind, and lose myself in worship.

 

“King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth He stood,

Lord of lords, in human vesture, in the body and the blood,

He will give to all the faithful his own self for heavenly food.”

It is in silence that I want to contemplate the journey of Jesus from the cradle to the cross.  It is in silence I want to remember and worship the mighty King of kings and Lord of lords – the One who came in bodily form, as a humble baby in a manger – in order to die on a cross for me. 

 

“Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way,

As the Light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day,

That the pow’rs of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away.”

It is in silence that I want to contemplate the coming of Jesus, with an angelic army as His escort, to bring Him, the very Light of light, into a world darkened by sin.

 

“At his feet the six-winged seraph; cherubim, with sleepless eye,

Veil their faces to the presence, as with ceaseless voice they cry,

‘Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, Lord Most High!”

It is in silence that I want to contemplate the glory of Jesus – in worship, along with all the heavenly host who proclaim, “Alleluia, Lord Most High!”

 

Don’t let the Christmas season pass you by in a blur of busyness, hustle bustle, and noise.  When December arrives, guard your calendar and plan time to be quiet, to think, and to contemplate this awesome truth: 

“For God so loved the world that HE GAVE His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   John 3:16