Guard the Meaning of Christmas
Okay it's that time of the year when things get kind of crazy around our house. Not everyone is out of school yet (poor Avery). Some gifts have been given. Some have not. Some have still yet to be bought. We still want to get a tree (okay tonight's the night) and clean and decorate the house. Then there's still cooking, baking, wrapping, and Christmas cards to be done. And of course there's church, ministry, and family activities. Just a little glimpse into the busyness of the season. Now don't get me wrong, most of these things are a blessing but in all the busyness I can see the danger in overlooking the true meaning of Christmas.
The following is a short devotional “Beware the Idol of Busyness at Christmas”" by Paul David Tripp that captures the thought:
"It is really sad how much of our time, effort, and energies are captured by the cultural busyness of Christmastime, rather than the core of the Advent story. We allow Christmas to be more about created stuff than it is about the incarnation of the Creator. We've turned the story on its head. The glory of this story is that the Creator himself becomes a man to rescue us from our bondage to the creation. For some, Christmas has become about bondage to the creation. This is something we should guard against. Christmas can also become more about decorating and acquiring than about being rescued. We all want to decorate our lives with beautiful things that we think will satisfy us. Maybe what we've done with the Christmas story is a metaphor for that desire. What we've done with this season is a metaphor for how we just want to decorate everything so that life is beautiful to us. But that never ends up satisfying us. It's not wrong to want your house to be beautiful at Christmas, but if that's what the season is about, you've missed the whole point. Christmas proclaims that nothing but Christ's redemption is ever going to give us what our hearts long for, rescuing us from things that can't satisfy. It's not about created stuff, it's not about decorating and acquiring. It's about the incarnation of the Creator—rescuing us from all those false hopes."
Just a reminder to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ and God's redemption of His people. This past Sunday, some of us went to sing Christmas carols to/with an excited group of residents at the Country View Assisted Living facility down the street from the church. It was a wonderful time to share Christmas cheer with our neighbors, and they blessed us richly. Thank you to all that joined in. Whatever you do this Christmas, may it be a time of celebration and peace of God's incarnation in the birth of Christ. Merry Christmas!
Pastor Darren
