As a kid growing up in the church, I always had this split focus on Christmas. There was always this sense of “right now”. The tree, the lights, gifts, food, parties (remember parties?). It was a time of celebration. A time of year when you and everyone you knew lived in the moment of that season. School paused. Work, at the very least, looked different. Expectations and norms accommodated this universal sense of “tis the season”.
Running, seemingly, parallel was this need to remember what it was all about, the Christmas story. While enjoying the festivities of the current Christmas season was great, it was always supposed to come second to what Christmas was really about. Jesus comes as an infant, born to a poor family – not royalty, to bring hope, peace, love, joy to all the world. Ultimately, purchasing salvation as our great mediator to reconcile us to the Father. Christmas, or at least the true sense of Christmas, was meant to be about remembering and honoring these things. It was about paying homage to the world changing events of Christ’s life and to reflect, with gratefulness on what that has meant for us and the world around us. It was about remembering and ensuring that, while having gingerbread cookies are great, we must not get too caught up in the moment, because Christmas is really about the past.
In recent years, I’ve been learning more that remembering Christ’s birth and Christmas celebrations aren’t two different ideas or priorities, but two parts that make up the whole. Because Jesus came to bring hope, we can be generous to those in need. Because Jesus brought immeasurable love, we can pause our busy lives to intentionally pour into our family and friends. Because Jesus brought peace, we can lay down our differences and see each other through God’s eyes. Because Jesus brought joy we can laugh, feast and celebrate.
So, as much as the story of Christmas is about what has happened 2000 years ago, it’s a story that is still happening. We are God’s people today and this Christmas season is the expression of that Holy night in the present. We are tied through time, to when light came into the world and we live now to honour the birth of our King, by getting “caught up in the moment”.
