Christmas Like a Child

It's that time of year where the Christmas season sneaks up on us faster than we expected and the scent of cinnamon and Christmas trees fills the air along with a cloud of mixed emotions.  Between the excitement of the season and the stress of shopping, the joy and heartbreak of family gatherings and the ever so delicate battle of Jesus vs Santa vs "Happy Holidays", it's no wonder we're exhausted by the end of the year.  

Remember when we were little?  And Christmas was awesome?  No mix of emotions- just awesome. Sure, a slight mix between happy, blissful, ecstatic and satisfied, but that was it. Christmas was the best time of the year.

Then we got a little bit older, and Christmas was still the best time of the year, but more-so because every other less than perfect detail in life just simply didn't matter today.  Today, everyone loved each other and chatted amiably.  Today, there was only laughter and heartfelt hugs.  Today there was peace.

Then we grew up.  There's a faint taste of happiness but the season is significantly more stressful as we are now deeper into adulthood. The holiday is slightly more expensive, and there's a certain level of pressure as to whose house will be the house of honor; who is mandatory to shop for and who would be OK with a nice Christmas card; who has to sit on the other side of the table of who to avoid any unpleasantries.

I know I can't speak for everyone- some will always have overwhelming joy and good memories with each Christmas, and that is a blessing.  But to some, this season is no longer solely joy.  This season is sprinkled with fragments of a broken family- fragments of a broken heart.

I think that that's OK.  I think it's OK to be a little sad or nostalgic for simpler times.  But we can also stay joyful, because regardless of anything in or out of our control this season, Christmas will always be wonderful.

Christmas is wonderful because this is the day that Christ our savior was born! That is truly the reason behind this season, and I can think of no better reason to relentlessly celebrate. Despite our circumstances, God loves us, so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to come to this earth that he might heal our broken hearts, bind our wounds, set the captives free- Jesus came to offer us a life outside of ourselves; life everlasting.

Have you heard the Christmas story?  It's incredible.  And it is personally written, with love, to you and to me. Do you remember when we remembered that, and that was all that mattered?  Here, in our broken world, a savior was born, to teach us the way to truth, love and life, and to heal us and offer the opportunity for us to be restored to be forever whole, and wholly loved for eternal life.  A savior was born not to condemn us for our mistakes or wrongdoings, and not to beat us up for our failure to be perfect, but to pick us up and dust us off, to clothe us in beautiful robes of righteousness, and to walk by our side in this life and the next.



Jesus loves us! What a merry, merry Christmas it is.