Christmas doesn’t feel like Christmas this year. Maybe some of you can relate? The traditions aren’t the same, you aren’t feeling the Christmas spirit, and maybe, some people that were here last year aren’t here to celebrate. Whatever it may be, Christmas might feel a bit off for you. Things aren’t going right and the perfect Christmas you imagined just isn’t happening.
I think the problem with Christmas and the Christmas season is that it’s become so much about decorations and traditions that it takes away from what Christmas should be. Christmas is a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and yet, we’ve made it into a day about stuff. We are so concerned with finding the right gift, the right tree, and making the right food, that we totally miss the point of Christmas.
Each year Christmas loses its meaning more and more. We are consumed with the stress of the season. Do you ever think about why your birthday, Christmas, and other holidays end in disappointment? It’s because these holidays are painted as having to be perfect. You only get one of them a year so it has to be the perfect day and you have to be happy.
You can’t force joy, and sometimes that sucks because you really really want to be happy and act as if the holiday is the best day ever! But the reality is, the stress of the season gets to us and when we finally get to the day itself, we’re exhausted.
Christmas isn’t supposed to be this way. Our world is inconstant and so are our feelings. We can’t make everything perfect or “the way it should be.” But we can focus on the one constant of Christmas, and that’s Jesus. It’s Jesus’ birthday. God sent His one and only son down to die for us on the cross. Christmas is about the day Jesus was born. The meaning behind Christ’s birth will never change even when traditions do.
One thing we do on Christmas is give gifts. Christmas is called the giving season. We give because Christ gave first. God sacrificed Jesus because He loves us! So we show that love by loving on others.
Jesus also represents hope because he is the one and only way to Heaven. He was given to us on this day so that we can live life with hope in a better tomorrow and with hope in an eternal future.
We can be joyful on Christmas because we have been saved and because the King of the World has been born! We can find joy when we truly get behind the meaning of God’s sacrifice and when we accept the gift of being loved.
We can also have peace. Jesus made everything right and mended the broken interaction between sin and God’s people so that we could experience His peace.
I want you to take one of these words and focus on how you can make Christmas about Jesus. How can you share God’s love with others? Where do you see the hope in your life? How can you be joyful today? How can you experience God-given peace?
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas filled with love, hope, joy, and peace!
EMILY DICKINSON 