As Christmas is steadily approaching and expectations are all around, are you asking yourself what Christmas really means? I am. And this year is significantly different.
In years past, Christmas and it's entirety was focused on gifts and material things. Even when I was a kid, my sisters could attest to how grumpy I would get if I received less than they did. The "stuff" that we receive provides joy for a short amount of time. Those things don't last, they wear down, they break.
As Eric and I have entered our second year of marriage we have learned many lessons already. One lesson is being humble and selfless as a partner. We're also learning the gift of healing. This will mark our second Christmas together and I'm finding that it is grown into something more special than the last.
I think that Eric and I have found more joy in this season because of it's meaning to us. Joy that is unspeakable. After reading a blog on desiringGod.org, The Weight of Christmas Expectations, I found the following passage to nail down how I'm feeling:
So as our celebrations approach, let’s resolve to lay aside the weight and entangling sin (Hebrews 12:1) of selfish Christmas fantasies and look to Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6–8)This is the true Christmas spirit. Christ did not grasp; he served. And oh, how he served.
Advent season is the celebration of the unexpected Jesus coming at an unexpected time in an unexpected place to pay the unexpected, unfathomable price to give us unexpecting sinners the undeserved gift of complete forgiveness of sin and unimaginable gift of eternal life.
Christmas is not about fulfilling our holiday expectations. It’s about celebrating Jesus’s overwhelming accomplishment for us and following in his humble servant footsteps.
We're taking ourselves out of Christmas and putting more efforts towards others, like Jesus would. Finding joy in service is the biggest lesson I'm learning in my life.
Our church, Centre Church, believes in community outreach and I'm honored to be a part of such a mission. We served the community with 50 trees on Saturday during our Christmas Tree Giveaway. We provided families with trees free of charge, just some rainy weather & fellowship to go along. It was an experience that happened quick, considering the trees were gone in 30 minutes, but the impressions that were made are un-breakable.
The blog also states: The false myth of this Christmas is that if we can get it to look like the whimsical hazy collage in our minds, we will experience the “Christmas spirit” and be happy.
Eric and I have found gifts to be the center of Christmas in our pasts. Gifts never made us happy. This year, we won't be buying gifts for each other, but we will be reading, Advent: The Dawning of Indestructible Joy, and spending quality time with each other and our loved ones.
So I am asking you to find the truth in Christmas this season. Find joy and have it be unspeakable.
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