Lights. Presents. Trees. Sales. So much is going on at this time of year. 'Tis the season, alright - the season for stress. I had a good reminder of this yesterday. I got overwhelmed thinking about everything I still needed to do - making presents, wrapping presents, buying presents, events to go to, etc., etc., etc. See where I'm going with this? I got so caught up in all of the things that go along with the season, that I had forgotten what the whole holiday is really about. Luckily, I have a wonderful mother-in-law who (very politely) basically told me to get it together and get my perspective right. Thank God for her! After much prayer, I realized that I had lost focus on Christ, the whole reason I celebrate Christmas in the first place. So, I've made a conscious choice, with God's help, to look at this differently.
I am so blessed to have so many people in my life to give gifts to. Friends, family, students (who still sort of fall in the friends category, too - love you girls!), teachers, mentors... Sure, the list does go on and on, and that can get stressful sometimes, but what a joy that God has blessed me with so many wonderful people surrounding me. I might not have to worry so much about making or shopping for gifts without them, but I would be much poorer if they weren't in my life.
I am blessed that God has given me the ability to be able to make gifts for those that I am doing that for. Any small talents any of us have come straight from God, not ourselves, so I have to thank Him for that.
I am blessed to have a job where I can financially afford to be able to purchase gifts for my family and friends. There are so many people out there that aren't able to do that, so what right do I have to complain that I don't have enough money to buy an over-abundance of gifts for the over-abundance of family and friends I have?
I am blessed that I have people in my life who want to invite to me to their gatherings, where they celebrate Christ's birth and His love for us, and enjoy being in fellowship with one another. Who cares if the calendar is packed? It just means I'm loved!
But most of all, I'm blessed that there is a Christmas season to celebrate. And I'm blessed that Christ loved me first, so that I could love Him in return and have a greater purpose in this season - to glorify Him rather than myself. I'm blessed that I am His, and nothing can change that.
So, when you're stressed out in this season, remember Who it's about and remember that you just need Jesus. Everything else is just fluff. If all the lights, trees, presents, gatherings, etc., were taken away, it wouldn't be any less Christmas, because that's not what it's about - it's about Christ. And though our nation seems to be trying sometimes, you can't take Christ out of Christmas. Hey, and guess what? Even if you're one of those people that thrives during this season, and you're not the slightest bit stressed out, you need Jesus, too.
If you have nothing under the tree and a meager dinner on the table, you need Jesus. If you have presents overflowing out the front door of your house and a pony in your backyard, you need Jesus.
If you don't have a family or friends to celebrate Christmas with, you need Jesus. If there are so many, you're having to send some to stay at a hotel because your house is already full, you need Jesus.
If you celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or nothing at all because none of it matters to you, you need Jesus. If you celebrate Christmas and don't believe in all of this "season's greetings" and "holiday tree" nonsense, you need Jesus.
If you're still lost in your sin, you need Jesus. If you're already a believer and recognize the beauty of this season comes not from the decorations, but from the Decorator, you still need Jesus.
Do you see where I'm going with this? No matter what, in every situation, we all need Jesus - and that's it. Nothing added to Him. Okay? Not good works, not your belief in some nebulous afterlife or reincarnation, not your belief that everyone goes to heaven no matter what, not your belief that you can save yourself or that you have your own deity inside of you, not your determined belief that there is nothing after death, not following every rule laid before you, not tolerance, not Allah, not Buddha, not a pantheon of false gods, none of that is what you need. All any of us needs is Jesus. And I don't care if that offends some people. Too bad - the truth is offensive sometimes, but it is no less the truth.
And we don't just need Jesus now, during a holiday that bears His name. We need Him each and every day. Why? Because we are lost without Him. We are hopeless without Him. We are dying without Him. We are sinners in desperate need of a Savior. And when I say desperate, that's not just a word that's used lightly, to add emphasis. No, I mean desperate like you just got dropped in the middle of the Sahara with no water, no food, both legs broken, AND you just got bitten by a venomous snake - that kind of desperate. Earth-shattering, painful, I'm-going-to-die-without-help desperate. Because without Someone to save us, we will die. As a matter of fact, we're already walking dead men (and not the kind from the TV show, either). What do you do? When you're that desperate, you obviously can't save yourself. I guarantee you've tried. Whether or not you believe in anything after death, you live by some sort of moral code, even if it's just your own. Why? What drives us to do this? Because we know there's something greater and bigger out there and we're compelled to reach for it, but we're always going to fall short of the mark. Our sin keeps us from perfection. And perfection is what is required by God. One seemingly insignificant infraction of the Law, and we're condemned - and I'm here to tell you, we're breaking the rules from birth! But how can something so tiny, one little broken rule, justify death? Because God is holy, perfectly holy. He is our Creator, and truth be told, He can demand anything He wants of us, and be perfectly justified in doing so. See, that's the thing about sin - it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to us, until we realize that it's not like we just did something wrong against another person who's just like us. It becomes a big deal when we fully grasp Who God is - perfectly holy, perfectly just, and perfectly SOVEREIGN. Sovereign. That means He has the right to rule, and He owns everything because He created it. He made it! It's His! So when we sin against Him, we're sinning against a being that we can't even fully comprehend the depths of. We're sinning against the very person who made us. You know how awful you feel after you've done something bad to your parents (and we've all done it, so don't act like you haven't)? Okay, it's that times infinity. So yes, one tiny infraction is enough to condemn you to eternal death and hell. And it's just and right - there's nothing you can do to rail against it, because it's right.
So what do you do? You can't save yourself, because you're already condemned, and it's not like there's any heavenly Get Out of Jail Free cards coming your way. You need Someone to save you. But that Someone can't just be anybody - He can't be like you, because then He'd be condemned, too. No, you need Somebody perfect, Somebody who hasn't sinned, Somebody more like God the Father than like you. And that's where Jesus comes in. On a night long ago, God the Father sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be born in a manger, into hardship, into poverty, and He did it for <i>you</i>. That's the miracle of Christmas. That's the reason for the season. But why? How does His birth affect you?
Jesus willingly laid aside His glory, His place in Heaven at the right hand of His Father, to be born into nothing to save you. Because get this: since He's God (this is the mystery of the Trinity), He couldn't (and didn't) sin. He was able to live the perfect life, fully God still, but also fully man, that you and I cannot live. He maintained a record that was pure and spotless, unblemished by any taint of sin. Can you imagine? In the 33 years that He lived, not once did He sin - not against anyone else, and ultimately, since all sin is against God, not against God. And then, He willingly allowed Himself to be beaten, mocked, spat upon, flogged, have a crown of thorns pushed into His brow, nailed to a cross by His hands and feet, lifted high for all to see, suffer an agonizing, terrifying, brutal death, have His Father turn away from the sin that He bore upon the cross (not His own sin, but the sins of those who would believe on Him for salvation), and a spear thrust into His side - all to save you and me, if we will believe in Him. To save those of us who yet hated Him, even we who were not yet born, hated Him because we were already tainted by sin. Jesus died to save sinners.
He exchanged the ceaseless praise of the angels for the mocking cries of a bloodthirsty crowd. He exchanged unblemished, powerful hands for ones that would work hard as a carpenter before having nails driven through them. He exchanged a crown of gold for a crown of thorns. He exchanged a throne of glory for a cross of wood. He exchanged the ceaseless praise of the angels for the mocking cries of a bloodthirsty crowd. He exchanged the light and glory of Heaven for the darkness and sin of this world. And all for the love of those who yet hated Him. He exchanged everything He was worthy of, all the glory that was His due by right, to save me - a dirty, filthy sinner - so that, when I believe on His work on the cross as being sufficient for salvation, and I repent (turn away from my sin and turn to God), one day, when God looks on me, He will see not my works, but Christ's. Not my wickedness, but Christ's righteousness. He will see me, not deserving of death and eternal separation in Hell away from His presence, but as a precious daughter, a fellow heir with Christ.
And so this is the biggest blessing of the season, and where I needed to get my perspective back to. Because Christmas, and really every day, is not about the things that fill it, but about Who is filling it. It's about Who I'm living for. About the reason that I have life - my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
