A colleague that is also one of my Facebook friends recently posed this request to all of his Facebook friends: Tell me one thing that excites you about Christmas. I got ready to write down my answer and suddenly realized that I didn’t have one. The query was posted two weeks ago, it’s still in my brain to answer it, but I remain without an appropriate response.
I love Christmas; the idea of Jesus, God’s Son, entering the world just like any other human being fascinates and pleases me. Who else but a loving, caring God would send us a child to bridge the gap between us?
I enjoy the trappings, both religious and secular, of the season. How can you resist smiling at all the pretty lights that dispel the gloom of an ever colder and more miserable December? How can you not smile when you sing the joyous songs, hymns and carols that celebrate our Saviour’s birth? And how can you not enjoy the extra effort we all make to get together and to be a little kinder to one another.
Excitement, however, which I take to be either a kind of breathless anticipation or a bouncing off the walls giddiness, is not something that I feel at this time of year. If it’s the rebirth season of Easter and springtime, with the snow melting, the days getting longer and the temperature (and humidity) soaring, I am absolutely excited, thrilled and generally over the top happy. At Christmas, however, mine is a much more mellow joy that certainly overflows, but neither bubbles up or explodes.
The important thing is that it is a season of joy, even if it’s not exciting to me. Christmas is a light in the ever growing darkness of winter. It is a time to remember that as God fulfilled His promise once, in the arrival of the Messiah, he will fulfill it again in Jesus’ return and triumphant reign. As we batten down the hatches against the impending cold, snowy and blah winter, Jesus’ birth offers us the warmth in our hearts we need to make it through the season and through life. The baby in the manger reminds us of the frailty and miracle of life. The growing young man reminds us of the progress we make in our faith. The miracle working adult reveals to us God at work in our lives. The dying King of the Jews reminds us that Jesus knows our pain. The resurrected Christ reminds us we are blessed beyond imagining.
I guess the final answer to my friends question is that I’m happy at Christmas, if not excited. I can also say, however, that I’m always excited about Jesus, the Reason for the Season.
Thank-you God for your Son.
