Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. So, too, has Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. And even as I write this Cyber Monday is knocking on the door. You know what that means...
The crazed and consumer-driven commercialism that used to be Christmas is officially upon us.
Let the madness begin!
Suddenly as if with the flip of a switch there are about a bazillion and one things to get done. The turkey leftovers are barely chilled in the fridge and it's out to the garage attic to haul down the lights and the garlands and the Christmas decor. Then it's off to the tree farm to hunt down the perfect evergreen to prop up and bedazzle in the living room. Then there's the shopping. And the shopping. And the shopping. Making lists. Checking them twice. Hunting down and crossing off items in rapid-fire succession as though on some scavenger hunt our very lives depended on. And of course, let's not forget the baking and the party-hosting and the gift-wrapping.
Who can blame us when the real meaning of Christmas gets relegated to some dim, dusty corner of our subconscious. And before we know it the season has past us by in a blur of glitzy lights and glittery trappings. And that all too familiar yet inevitable disappointing let-down feeling creeps over us once again. And we're a bit surprised to realize the only serious concession we've made to the reality of Christmas is to watch It's a Wonderful Life.
Don't get me wrong. I love the blur, the lights and the trappings. I love It's a Wonderful Life. I think we all love those things. If you take a moment and watch the numbingly abundant Christmas commercials on TV you'll soon realize that they all seek to appeal to our united and universal love of those things.
Yet even as they do so, they subliminally pass along a deeper, more profound message. In their effort to sell Christmas through the blur and the lights and the trappings; the candles and the cookies and the diamond rings; the talking teddy bears and the brand new cars with the giant red bows what they are actually marketing to you is something much simpler. And something that can't be bought. It's a feeling.
The feeling that only comes with Christmas.
You know exactly what I'm talking about. It's that tingling sensation of excitement. That rush of knowing a good thing is coming and it's coming soon. That overwhelming expectation that leaves you almost literally vibrating with it's potency. I mean, it even has it's own cliche for goodness sake. "Like a kid on Christmas morning..."
It does seem that the most concentrated doses of the Christmas feeling are poured out on the very young. (Don't you remember the closer Christmas got the harder it became to sleep at night?) And then as you grow up the amount slowly lessens and the magic gradually dulls. I used to think this was because when you are young the responsibilities and the never ending to-do lists that accompany "the Christmas feeling" don't affect you. You are free to just enjoy and absorb all the wonder and excitement uninhibited.
But I no longer think that is the case.
Because I recently read the following quote and it has completely changed my mind...
"Christmas was foretold centuries before the birth of Christ. Is it any wonder that the Christmas season is filled with anticipation?"
That, my friends, is the secret. It's "the feeling". It's the magic and the excitement and the rush and the expectation all rolled into one. And it's what all little children innately understand. It's what all of us innately understood once upon a time.
Christmas IS the anticipation.
As adults we confuse this with stress and we translate it into a frenzy of more and more and more to do, to get done, to have completed and finish so we can just sit back and enjoy the season.
But that's what the season is. This crescendo of...well, of everything really. Memories and emotions and feelings. Peace and love and thankfulness. Humanity and humbleness and wonder. It's all building and building and building...
Until starlight and kings lead us on toward a manger and a baby and an audience of shepherds.
You see we aren't just yearning for the materialism this season has become so entangled with. Not really. Not deep in our souls. We aren't even eager to buy into "the Christmas feeling" all those commercials mimic and peddle. We know those are mere vague shadows that dilute and disappoint.
What we want is what the whole world has wanted since the dawn of time.
Him.
He didn't come as anyone expected, of course. We all know that. We smile, a bit smugly if we're honest, as we think of how very wrong everyone was way back then when they looked for the Prince of Peace in a palace and the Son of God in a position of glory and honor.
Yet for all we know...we fare no better. We look for him in glitz and glitter. In shopping malls and ornament boxes. In kitchens and in front of fireplaces and even in old black and white movies.
While all around us the very foundations of the earth are pulsing with the remembered anticipation of when love came down. When the promise was fulfilled. When God dwelt with us.
So this Christmas season celebrate the anticipation. Lay awake in bed at night overwhelmed with excitement. Feel the build up of centuries worth of waiting.
And then find everything you've ever longed for and more in Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment