Do you get a little stressed during the Christmas season? There always seems to be so much to do…decorations to put up, cookies to bake, presents to purchase, parties to attend, wrapping to do, a tree to put up, Christmas cards to address and mail…the list goes on and on. Who ever said these things had to get done? Which book of the Bible tells us we are to do these things to usher in the King of kings and Lord of lords [Revelation 19:16]? We seem to have embraced all the world tells us we are to do to celebrate Christmas and little of what the Word tells us about Christmas.
Have you read the Christmas story yet this season? You can find it in Luke 2. It is a beautiful story, but it is a simplistic one also. Talk about life simplification, you can’t get more simple than the first Christmas. It was quiet, except for the cry of a newborn King. It wasn’t the party to attend that year. In fact, there were only animals there for a while, then shepherds came calling, but they didn’t stay long because they went out to name drop to their friends that they were the first to meet the Baby. I’m pretty certain there weren’t decorations around the stable, unless you call animal hair and waste decorations. Jesus came in the humblest fashion imaginable and it was beautiful.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Christmas cookie, I take great pleasure in purchasing gifts for those I love and I want to decorate the moment the turkey is swallowed, but I do it because it brings me pleasure not because I HAVE to do it.
Can we agree to make this Christmas different? Would you be willing to take time each day between now and December 25th to meditate on that first Christmas? I want to encourage you to read the Christmas story at least once a day, but read it in every version of the Bible you can get your hands on to see it with fresh eyes. Don’t have more than one version at home? You can always borrow one from a friend and explain why. Stop in a bookstore and pick up another version and read it. There are copies of the Bible in the library or your pastor would gladly allow you to borrow one of His, I’m sure.
When you make it a point to focus on the Christ child every day leading up to Christmas, you’ll have a very different Christmas. He will be the center of it all, which was the original plan anyway.