A Case for waiting for Christmas...

Since late September retail shops and department stores have been fahlalalalahing towards Christmas. The Christmas trees, the lights, the ornaments seemed to appear much earlier than usual this year. Even the city I live in, Brighton MI, has already put up their holiday décor along the highways and byways of the city. So ready or not here comes Christmas!

But I would make a case why we as people of faith should wait; why we should put the brakes on the mad dash towards Christmas. Yes I know this is not exactly the most popular of ideas, and I know it’s not going to catch on too soon, but I am an avid believer in keeping Advent the season of light, hope but more of all anticipation.

So here is my case for waiting for Christmas…

1. Anticipation is a good thing. Do you remember what it was like to be a child waiting for a birthday or family visit of Christmas? Your heart pounding, you palms sweating, bouncing off the walls waiting for the right moment. There was something exciting in being a child waiting to see what would come. For Christmas to have any real meaning in our lives we need a good dose of that excitement. The birth of Jesus for us should be a looked-for thing not a mad dash of shopping and busy-making. In Jesus’ birth we see the anticipation of Mary, the angels, the shepherds. We are called to join them in the longing and waiting.

2. In an era of instant everything being able to wait is a blessing. We live in an instant society; instant messaging, texting, fast food, and coffee just to name a few. We loathe having to wait on anything, we want it and we want it now! But the birth of any child involves waiting (ask any mom if you doubt me). No matter how anticipated, needed or wanted the Christ Child was Mary still had to be patient throughout the nine months leading up to his birth. Can we in our modern instant culture learn a lesson from first century peasant girl about the value of waiting…if only for a few weeks?

3. We lose something in jumping to quickly into Christmas. Scarcely had the candy been put away from Halloween before “Forsty the snow man” took up residence in department stores this year (actually his eyes of coal and carrot nose were showing up well before Halloween but who am I to judge). I think we lose something in jumping to quickly to Christmas because we tarnish the luster of the season if we run to it too soon. The lights aren’t as sparkly and the tinsel not as tinselly if we put them up in early September. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Christmas music and the spirit that the season brings but if we point too much and too quickly to that season by the time Christmas rolls around most of us will be Bahumbuging rather than Merry Christmas-ing.

So in the end this year I plan on holding off on Christmas, at least for a little while. I plan on keeping Advent, spending time with Mary and Joseph and the unborn Jesus. I plan on anticipating and waiting and enjoying the journey because I know that in the end Christ will be born once again into our world and I don’t want to be so burnt out on Christmas that I miss him. 

Meditation: Christmas in October?

Christmas has come early…or so it would seem. It seems as though every year Christmas come earlier and earlier. I walked into a store a few days ago to the sight of Christmas trees, lights and brightly colored presents. I honestly thought I had stepped into a Christmas wonderland, all that was needed was a guy in a red suit, some pointy eared elves and carols.

I have to wonder what it means that in the middle of October, well before Halloween and Thanksgiving, our culture has rushed on to Christmas. Do we really care as a society about the meaning of Christmas or has it simply become a commercial holiday?

The temptation for many us as people of faith is to join in the cultural rush towards Christmas. We can quickly be deemed "Grinch" if we don't follow behind the march towards Christmas trees and glitter. But what do we lose? I think we lose the tremendous meaning of Christmas; we cheapen the fact that the Creator of the Universe, the One who spun the planets and gave color to daisies deemed us worthy of becoming one of us. To me that is an awesome feeling that God chose to spend time in our shoes, coming as a child.

What we are called to do is to wait. We live in a society of instant everything, but the message of the church is to wait. There is something special about the anticipation of what is to come, and that is part of the allure of Christmas.

How will you hold off the onset of Christmas this year? How will you live in that place of waiting and hoping and longing for the coming of God in Christ? How we answer these questions will make all the difference in our lives and in our world.

Prayer

Gracious and Holy God, I know you come among me in the helpless and the lonely; grant that I may see you present in our world not only in the journey towards Christmas but in every journey. May IO see in the face of others your face and may my actions be guided and directed solely by you. I make my prayer in the name of Jesus your child our Savior. Amen.