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You just gotta' love this time of year. All the joyful...ness. And all the Christmas...timey...ness.
Something about this time of year has actually bugged me the past few years, and I was coming into it this year the same way. It's rough, 'cause as a Christian I, of all people, should be greatly rejoicing this time of year. Yet, I found it difficult to do so.
At my Church's college group this last Sunday they talked about just that. The leader-dude opened telling us about how he used to dread Christmas. Ever since he was a child he hated it and even into his early adult years he abhorred Christmas. It was just a season of bad memories for him, and he told us some of those memories. Just listening to him I thought 'I don't have all that much to complain about, now do I?'
Anyway, he walked us through the true meaning of Christmas, without ever referencing the books of Matthew or Luke, I might add. Those are just the story of Christmas. The meaning of Christmas is actually found in Genesis 3, Isaiah 9:6-7, and John 1:14 (to name a few passages). I think that's one of the problems I've had over the years. I've heard the story a million and seven times "and the angel of the Lord appeared to Mary and said, 'behold you shall conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name "Emanuel", which means "God with us".'"(don't stone me if it's not an exact quote. I wrote it out from memory) The point is, even though it is an amazing and great story, I tend to get into this rut where the meaning of Christmas is just about the birth of a baby. And yeah, the baby was Jesus who was both God and man. But I would tend to forget the reason for the season to be so joyful. I forget that Christmas isn't so much about a birthday as it is about the coming of someone who would die. And not even just that, but that he would die to take the punishment for my sin, and that he would rise from the dead to show that he had come to free people from death.
Yes the Christmas story is amazing and full of all kinds of neat stuff. But if it becomes just a story about a birthday, it loses all meaning. If Christmas is just about a miraculous birth, then it lacks a good reason to celebrate this season year after year. It falls short.
The baby had a purpose. The celebration is for the coming of the one who was to fulfill that purpose. From the moment Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden of Eden man has been waiting, searching for the one who would break the curses that God placed upon him. Thousands of years later he showed up...and no one noticed unless an angel showed up and told them.
Well, the point is, He was here, and he saved me, and he's coming back. So lets celebrate!
*confetti*
2 comments:
2:10 a.m.?!?!
What are you doing up so late on a school night? Oh yeah, blogging. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Get some rest :o)
Mom
WHen we got saved, I really got into "truth" and tried to ban all non-Biblical stuff from our home. My husband drew the line atnot having a tree because it was the only thing about Christmas that he enjoyed. 15 years later, I heard this cool old prophet quote God to say, "Cut it out! Your spoilin' Christmas!" Grab that supernatural joy and run with it, young man. We don't get a lot of seasonal openings to share our faith.
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