Enjoying an Imperfect Christmas

Christmas can be as frustrating as it is wonderful.  While it is usually the time of year when we reunite with family and friends that we don’t get to see very often and there seems to be holiday cheer  in the air it can also be a season in which the negatives are magnified as  much as the positives.  The problem seems to originate from the tendency we have to put too many expectations on Christmas.  We build it up to something that it can’t possibly be or fulfill in our lives.  The disappointments are that much more poignant at Christmas time.  The phone call that never came or the person who elected to not come to the Christmas party is more painful than usual.  There is the hope and the expectation that maybe, just on Christmas things will be different and sometimes they are, but sometimes they get worse because of unrealistic expectations. 


And, doesn’t it seem like there is much more pressure to get the Christmas dinner right than any other dinner?  Or the constant dissatisfaction with the gifts and the frustration of knowing that the person you are buying for is going to be dissatisfied.  It can seem that at Christmas the lack of relationships resulting in our inability to know what each other really want is highlighted.  And, how about those crowds?  Most of the people waiting in line at malls don’t look like they have much holiday cheer.   And last but not least is that sinking feeling on the evening of the twenty fifth that “it’s all over in a few hours.” Or the nagging question of “was it all really worth it?”


Although Christmas is certainly a season for putting on a plastic happy face it can also have the unique ability of revealing who we really are.  We can see our priorities in the gifts we buy, the kind of gifts we buy, who we buy them for and who we don’t buy them for.  Family gatherings also have a way of revealing to us how people really feel, especially at Christmas.  “Did they show up?”  “Why didn’t they show up?”   “Why aren’t they talking to anybody at the party?”


At the very least, I think that all of us have experienced the disappointment of having the day of Christmas that we have planned, hoped and saved for all year arrive and dissipate faster than tinsel melting on an open fire.   


Yes Christmas can be “the most wonderful time of the year” as the popular carol quips but it can also be the most frustrating time of the year.  Can you imagine that as a song?  “It’s the most frustrating time of the year!!!”  The point is that if Christmas is just about the eggnog and fudge and gifts under the tree or even family, then it surely runs the risk of not being fulfilling.  The true meaning of Christmas is much simpler but yet much more profound.  It is simply about God becoming man in order to reach His people because He loves them so much.  It’s about humility not hustle and bustle. 


The God of the universe was born in a manger.  It’s about simplicity not complexity.  The story of that First Christmas was very straightforward and powerful.  It was simply and majestically about Him the Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords.   Without Christ, Christmas is just another day.  Rejoice this year in the true reason why Christmas is so wonderful.  God became one of us to be near to us and to save us because He loves us. 

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23