I love the Christmas season. I love the expectation that seems to hang thick in the air in the weeks between Thanksgiving and December 25th. When I was a child, that expectation was centered on an arrival, specifically the arrival of Santa Claus and all the gifts he was bringing to me. And it’s no wonder – my parents went above and beyond and lavished my brothers and I with presents! I have fond memories of joyfully (greedily?) going through department store toy catalogs and circling everything that caught my eye, making a wish list (ransom demands?) for St. Nick.
As a child, my experience and the experiences of many children in our culture during the Christmas season was and is shaped by a particular story. As we get older though, that story fades away, and is replaced by another. What Christmas means to us as adults is shaped and formed by which story we choose to enter in to.
Now that I’m an adult, and a believer in Jesus, expectation still hangs thick in the air for me at Christmas time, and it is still centered on an arrival, and the giving of a Gift.
Having not grown up as a believer (I became a Christian when I was eighteen years old, the summer after I graduated high school), I never really understood the true significance of the real Christmas story. Sure, I knew that this “Jesus” guy had something to do with it, but that was mostly because Linus said so in his speech after the fight at the Christmas play rehearsal.
I’ll never forget, though, my first Christmas as a follower of Christ. I was working at a Christian bookstore, and we were open for a half-day on Christmas Eve. As we were getting ready to close the store down, one of my coworkers went around to every department giving out cards to each of us and saying, “Merry Christmas. Make it about worship.”
I remember thinking to myself, “Worship? What is she talking about?” I had only been a Christian for a few months, and the significance of what we (should) celebrate at Christmas time had yet to sink in. Her words haunted me that night as I attended a candlelight service.
“Make it about worship.”
Worship, at its core, is about making something central. It’s about elevating that thing above all else; putting it on a pedestal, if you will. It was not a grand revelation for me to realize that in the past gifts, materialism, greed, and selfishness were on my pedestal at Christmas time.
“Make it about worship.” Make Christmas about worship. I had already been doing that. Now, I’m not a genius, but I really didn’t think my friend was talking about worshiping just anything, and even though I was a new Christian, I knew she meant Jesus.
Make Christmas about worshiping Jesus.
And for me, my first Christmas as a new believer was about worshiping Jesus. I remember that Christmas Eve service well. As we sat in the darkened sanctuary and slowly, one by one, each person lit their candle, dancing points of light filled that place. I was captivated by a reading from John 1, and it remains to this day, for me, the purest and most beautiful version of the Christmas story.
John 1:1-5, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
I said before that what Christmas means to us is shaped and formed by the story we choose to enter in to. The true story of Christmas is the story of Light breaking into darkness, of a King stepping down from His throne to go and rescue His people. Christmas is about God “entering in.” It’s the celebration of the incarnation, of God making His dwelling among us. We could spend the rest of our lives exploring the depths and wonder of this mystery, this miracle, but let it be enough to say that when Jesus broke through into our reality, it changed everything.
It still changes everything.
As a child, my experience and the experiences of many children in our culture during the Christmas season was and is shaped by a particular story. As we get older though, that story fades away, and is replaced by another. What Christmas means to us as adults is shaped and formed by which story we choose to enter in to.
Now that I’m an adult, and a believer in Jesus, expectation still hangs thick in the air for me at Christmas time, and it is still centered on an arrival, and the giving of a Gift.
Having not grown up as a believer (I became a Christian when I was eighteen years old, the summer after I graduated high school), I never really understood the true significance of the real Christmas story. Sure, I knew that this “Jesus” guy had something to do with it, but that was mostly because Linus said so in his speech after the fight at the Christmas play rehearsal.
I’ll never forget, though, my first Christmas as a follower of Christ. I was working at a Christian bookstore, and we were open for a half-day on Christmas Eve. As we were getting ready to close the store down, one of my coworkers went around to every department giving out cards to each of us and saying, “Merry Christmas. Make it about worship.”
I remember thinking to myself, “Worship? What is she talking about?” I had only been a Christian for a few months, and the significance of what we (should) celebrate at Christmas time had yet to sink in. Her words haunted me that night as I attended a candlelight service.
“Make it about worship.”
Worship, at its core, is about making something central. It’s about elevating that thing above all else; putting it on a pedestal, if you will. It was not a grand revelation for me to realize that in the past gifts, materialism, greed, and selfishness were on my pedestal at Christmas time.
“Make it about worship.” Make Christmas about worship. I had already been doing that. Now, I’m not a genius, but I really didn’t think my friend was talking about worshiping just anything, and even though I was a new Christian, I knew she meant Jesus.
Make Christmas about worshiping Jesus.
And for me, my first Christmas as a new believer was about worshiping Jesus. I remember that Christmas Eve service well. As we sat in the darkened sanctuary and slowly, one by one, each person lit their candle, dancing points of light filled that place. I was captivated by a reading from John 1, and it remains to this day, for me, the purest and most beautiful version of the Christmas story.
John 1:1-5, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
I said before that what Christmas means to us is shaped and formed by the story we choose to enter in to. The true story of Christmas is the story of Light breaking into darkness, of a King stepping down from His throne to go and rescue His people. Christmas is about God “entering in.” It’s the celebration of the incarnation, of God making His dwelling among us. We could spend the rest of our lives exploring the depths and wonder of this mystery, this miracle, but let it be enough to say that when Jesus broke through into our reality, it changed everything.
It still changes everything.