As many of you know, this year has been a challenging one for me. It has been exhausting and emotionally draining in so many ways. It has been hard. And with the coming of the Christmas season, I have struggled to get into the Christmas spirit. Sometimes I think it would be easier to get rid of all the gifts and parties and eating. Sometimes I wish I could get rid of all the noise and distractions, the shopping and the planning and particularly the shameless materialism.
What’s the point anyway of giving gifts when people often prefer gift cards? What’s the point of giving, when people give you their wish lists and tell you what to get them? What’s the point of giving when it all seems caught up in stuff? Sometimes I just start to wonder the reason behind it all.
And then I remember the reason behind it all - to celebrate the greatest gift of all, God choosing to become one of us - Emmanuel, God With Us. Suddenly all the other gifts and wish lists and parties seem to fade. All that is left is love, abundant love, extravagant love, God’s extravagant love for us given to us, first in the newborn baby Jesus and then in allowing that only beloved son to die for us. His extravagant love made a way for us to have life, eternal life and abundant life.
When I meditate on that love, I can’t help but think I want to be a Scrooge this Christmas – not the way he was at the beginning of the story, but the way he was at the end, with a heart full of Christmas, celebrating a second chance, overflowing with joy and thankfulness for all the real “gifts” in his life. I think about the woman who broke the alabaster box at Jesus’ feet and lavished the expensive perfume on Him in an incredible act of worship (John 12:1-3). I think I want to find a way to be like that this Christmas.
Beyond everything else, I want to find a way to lavishly worship, to extravagantly pour out my love to Him and for Him. I suspect that kind of worship doesn’t require money or parties or food. It probably doesn’t even require a tree or decorations, even though those are nice. I suspect that all it requires a willing and open heart, a heart full of God’s love for me and overflowing with His joy, His hope, His peace.
Wow, I suddenly feel a little more ready to celebrate Christmas…maybe even “scrooge-like.”
As Tiny Tim says, “May God bless us everyone!” May He bless us as we worship Him this Christmas season.
Merry Christmas!
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