Perspective on Christmas-hang on it's a long one!

This is from an awesome book, my awesome big brother, Kevin, gave me.. a purse-driven christmas by Anita Renfroe (love her!) It's the first time I've read something that actually put into words my feelings on Christmas and all the hoop la that goes with it. It's long but worth the reading. Enjoy.

I became an amatuer Christmas symbolist, reasearching the meanings behind everything we did and reveling in the Christmas trivia and minutia. I would also talk for a good thirty minutes about our responsibility as Christians to choose only the sorts of ornaments that would help our friends and family understand Christ and how it was so important to keep the focus laser sharp for the Christmas season. The very earnest women in these sminars would listen with rapt attention and take detailed notes while I gave them even MORE things to do during the already insanely busy time of year to ensure that their families did not get the wrong idea as to what the season was really all about.

When I think about this now, I just want to go back in time and tell myself to shut up.

In the ensuing years, I came to realize the already-obvious truth about Christmas: Apart from Christ, it's not "Christmas" - it's just "-mas". I've observed that many of us who profess to live for Christ 24/7/365 feel a need to overly "represent" during the holiday season. Whence the pressure? I would like to stake my claim here and say that we don't have to worry that no one will understand Christmas unless we continually reeexplain it. The apostle Peter tells us to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us (see 1 Peter 3:15). This presumes that someone is asking about the hope we possess. It's much better when someone asks about your faith; it means they actually want to know and are ready to listen because of some quality that emanates from Christ living in you, not because you decorated with the most overtly "Christian" of ornaments.

Who on earth decided to embrace this pile of expectations and add yet another opportunity to feel like abject spiritual failures if we don't imbue every moment of the meaning? Can I just peel the monkey off of your back for a moment? I find it hard to believe that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father getting all bothered that we aren't meeting some unwritten standard of properly celebrating the season. Note: It is spiritual by virtue of whose brith it is we are celebrating.

If you want to express your love for your family with extravagant gifts and you can afford to do so, then by all means lavish them as the Father lavished us with the gift of His son and as the wise men brought extravagant gifts from afar. If you want to feast with your friends and family to celebrate the gift that they are in your life, go for it! If your heart of compassion compels you to take up your proverbial towel and serve, then go forth to the homeless shelter, serve dinner, and distribute gifts of clothing and blankets. Should you choose to purchase no presents and give your money to fund an endeavor that engages your passion, give with all your heart! If you want to invite your neighbors over and extend to them the gift of hospitality, do so with gusto! If you want to bake cookies with your children and smear icing all over your noses and laugh until you cry, do it--and don't worry that your activities are not "spiritual" enough. That kind of thinking only kills the very joy and freedom that Christ came to give us.

If Christ lives in you 365 days a year, you don't have to be any more "Christian" during the Christmas season. In fact, it's impossible to pull off.

He is the reason for the season, but the season may be slightly off. We know that December probably isn't the time of the year when Christ was actually born (the scholars think it was closer to spring-time); it's just the time that we have chose to honor the fact that he was born--or as The Message Bible puts it, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood" (John 1:14) Jesus became helpless to help us when we couldn't help ourselves. So take it for what it is: a great reason to celebrate!

And might I remind you of the fact that the first Christmas was as messy as any we've experienced in our own day? This fact inspires us to remember the significance of that first Christmas, right in the middle of our holiday strangeness.

When you are persevering through the travel madness that accompanies the oft insane desire to be with reliatives in your hometown, think of Mary and Joseph making the long journey back to their ancestral home for the government-imposed census.

When your hotel reservations get lost in cyberspace, think of Mary and Joseph looking for a room and getting a barn instead.

When you are fighting the crowds at the mall, think of how the population must have swelled in Bethlehem after Jesus' birth.

When you are untangling the tenth string of lights, think of the star that guided the wise men to the manger.

When you are loaded down with boxes and bags and it seems like a mile to your parking space, think of how far the wise men had to carry their gifts.

Perhaps all the weirdness of the season is, in fact, a great reminder of what a mess the first Christmas was. And look how well it turned out.
Anita Renfroe