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Merry Christmas

Amid the voices with something to say about Christmas, I’d like to add one which finds a few positive things.

Gift-giving can be excessive, but God’s gift of His Son might be considered excessive, too. Some people will spend hours of their time searching for exactly the right gift to express their warm regards toward those they love. God’s gift of eternal life through His Son is exactly what we need. Most psychologically healthy people cling to life, sometimes in spite of daunting conditions. Millions of dollars are spent researching and promoting products designed to reduce the effects of aging and to extend life. So everlasting life sounds like the ultimate prize... and it is.

Christmas decorations can be over the top, gauche, even downright ugly. (Remember, just like beauty, ugly is also in the eye of the beholder.) But decorating our homes for Christmas is designed to communicate something. It expresses our acceptance of and regard for all that Christmas means, even if only at some superficial level. God’s intention to communicate with us through the Lord Jesus is well documented. We read that, though in past times God spoke to us through prophets, He has spoken to us now through His Son.

Christmas concerts, parties and family gatherings are abundant. Many of us find events piled up to the point where we have to try to cover two or three in one day. In one church, I did a survey of the teenagers and found that the majority of attending families put more emphasis on the social aspect than the spiritual. I mention this simply to demonstrate that interpersonal connections are an important part of the season. People go out of their way to visit elderly relatives and others whom they don’t have opportunity to see often. This reminds me that the whole concept of the incarnation is a demonstration of God reaching out to those who had no way of approaching Him. He certainly went out of his way to make a connection with us when He sent the Lord Jesus as a human infant, to grow to adulthood and then to die in our place.

So altogether, if you’re looking for the spiritual aspect of Christmas, it’s there. You might have to peal back a few layers of commercialism, personal excess, and meaningless tradition, but it’s there. God’s gift of Himself in human flesh, communicating His love and offer of reconciliation is central to Christmas and its celebrations. Sometimes we might not see it if we don’t intentionally focus on it, but it’s there if you look for it.

Merry Christmas!

Ron Hughes
© December 2008