This Changes Everything

Presents can’t change everything. Cookies and milk and cute little elves can’t either. Nor can caroling, sleigh rides, or any amount of holiday cheer. But this? This can change everything!

We are now in the middle of the holiday season, which means you have probably already had a fair share of parties, family traditions, and way too many cookies (Tell me I’m not alone on that last one).

By now, your cheer may be waning and you may be getting tired. Your children may be suffering from It’s-Almost-But-Not-Quite-Christmas-itis (IABNQC for short)– a common, but treatable condition in which children’s sensibilities are overcome by an excess of twinkling lights, list making, and sugar-coated fun.

Or, on the other end, you may be so full of merriment that you have swung to the other side of the spectrum where the delights of red cups and matching reindeer pajamas and brown paper packages tied up with string have clouded your vision of what we are actually celebrating at Christmas.

Either way, now is a good time to remind ourselves of why Christmas is so much more than what sentimental Hallmark movies would lead us to believe.

There is a line in one of our favorite Christmas picture books that goes like this:

“It’s time! He’s come!
At last! He’s here!”

A couple of pages after these words, you see a picture of a dozen or so animals crowded around a baby. Here you get just a small glimpse of the wonder it is that the Creator of the world came to earth, born as a baby.

As I have been thinking through this post, thinking about what I could write that would help us to be refreshed in the midst of a busy season, I have had these words running through my mind. The wonder at Christmas time is THAT HE CAME.

Up until this point, everything had pointed to His coming. The promise given in the garden. The example of the life of Joseph and the act of the exodus and the reign of David, not to mention the many, many prophesies– all of these pointed to a coming King who would break into the darkness and bring hope to the world.

His coming changed everything. His coming meant the birth of redemption. His coming is what we celebrate now.

Today as we sat together at church, sharing through tears of a myriad of heartaches, I was reminded of what I have been mulling over. Without the coming of Christ at Christmas, we would be without hope in facing death, without hope in the midst of fractured families, without hope in wading through our own sinful struggles.

More to the point, without the coming of Christ at Christmas, we would be without hope in ANYTHING.

But, friends, JOY has come to the world. And we have hope in both the little moments of daily frustration and fatigue, the big moments of grief and fear, and every.thing.in.between.

I want to encourage you to remember that He has come. And when you’re tempted to worry or whine or forget, remember that His coming changes everything.

We all have great reason to hope. Merry Christmas!!!