WHAT IS IT THAT BRINGS YOUR MIND BACK TO CHRISTMAS AS A CHILD? IS IT THE THOUGHT OF GRANDMA’S HOME COOKING, SINGING ABOUT CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE OR THE EXPERIENCE OF THE WHOLE FAMILY GATHERED AROUND ONE TABLE?
Whatever it may be for you, I want to encourage you today to make this Christmas more than a nostalgic Christmas.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Christmas traditions along with most of you. I have a tree in the family room, lights on the house and Christmas music playing throughout the day. Whenever a Christmas song from my childhood starts playing, it takes me right back to where I was as a little boy in my parents living room.
Nostalgia can be a powerful and wonderful thing. To be nostalgic is “to long for and think fondly of a past time or condition.” To think fondly of past memories and experiences is in so many ways a good thing. Yet, I believe the meaning of Christmas is worthy of more than our nostalgia.
With the passing of every 365 days, as we approach the 25th of December, our thoughts should not be primarily of family traditions or gatherings, but the miraculous incarnation of God Himself, who was born as a baby to a virgin in Nazareth. The story that has been repeated, read, proclaimed and recounted countless times bares no less power today than it did at first. That God would “put on flesh,” as John said is a thought beyond comprehension (John 1:14). That the God who created our human bodies would Himself become a human with a body is as selfless, sacrificial and supernatural a thought as we could ever conceive.
As amazing and awe inspiring as it is, the reason God did this was not simply to impress us or get our attention. He did it so He could save us. You may ask, save us from what? From our sin, from our selfishness and from our desire to make much of ourselves and little of the God who made us. This tendency is in all of us. Yet God came, born as a baby in a manger, so he could live a human life in order to pay the ultimate penalty for human sin — “so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
The angels appeared, the shepherds praised and the wise men travelled with gifts. They didn’t do these things so we could take part in a commercialized gathering centred around a cultural expectation to buy each other presents so we could feel good about ourselves and be spoiled with more stuff and stuffed with more food.
The declaration of “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on Earth” (Luke 2:14) was not given so we could have warm memories of another holiday with homemade cookies and Hallmark films. Mary and Joseph submitted themselves to God’s plan for their lives, not so we could fill our stockings and sing cheery songs. All of these things took place so that Jesus could save people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).