Christmas can be a hard time for a lot of people. It’s filled with expectations of gift giving, card sending, and meaningful family gatherings. But what happens when those expectations go unmet or unfulfilled?
Some people have moved into a new area, so their connections – whether family or friends – are not in place, and/or they have not yet made new connections. Some people ask if they need to keep sending Christmas cards to people with whom they only communicate once a year. I know of at least three people who have recently lost a spouse, and this Christmas season will be painful for them.
For some people, especially those living in the northern latitudes, Christmas requires snow. It’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it’s sunny and 50 degrees all week.
We often hear that Christmas is supposed to be the happiest time of year. We hear that it’s supposed to be magnificent and filled with joy. We hear so much about what it’s “supposed to be” that we sometimes forget what it really is.
Christmas is the day (and the season, but that’s another story) when we celebrate the Incarnation, the moment when God became human. It’s the day we celebrate a boy being born to an unwed mother in a backroom where the animals were kept because nobody would make room in their homes for a couple of strangers who were expecting the birth of their first baby.
Despite all of that, despite all of our preconceived ideas about what Christmas should be, despite the pressure we put on ourselves to make the perfect Christmas, despite the parties, despite all of it and more, Christmas is really about the Incarnation, the moment when God the Son became a human being.
The Incarnation is all about God with us. The Incarnation is all about that moment when God lived among us and as one of us, giving us an example of what a life dedicated to God could look like. This is good news.
It’s good news because in all of our conditions and states we know that God is with us. God is with us for our first Christmas apart from family. God is with us in our first Christmas without a spouse. God is with us when we are gathered together with loved ones. God is with us in our celebrations and in our tears.
This Christmas, wherever you are, however you are feeling, may you know the joy of God with you.
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