Christmas has its cultural customs. We decorate our trees. We buy presents for loved ones and put those presents under the trees and open the presents on Christmas morning. Radio stations play music that we only listen to in December. Scrooge. Miracle on 34th Street. Santa Claus. Family pictures. Baked goods. Sunday papers that are as thick as Federal Health Care Reform Bills. Christmas cards. A Charlie Brown Christmas. Christmas carols. A couple weeks off from school. Lutefisk and rice pudding. A little extra time with family.
Most of these are good, but I wonder if sometime we are missing the original meaning of Christmas.
Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means “God is with us.” –Matthew 1:23
The authors of the four Gospels rarely translate words for us. I only remember it happening a few times. But Immanuel is translated from its original Hebrew because the author doesn’t want us to miss this one: God is with us. Those four words—God is with us—either mean everything or they mean nothing. It is the difference between a few weeks in December that make us feel good about humanity and a life that is lived with God’s presence and power.
A number of years ago, early on Christmas morning, I returned home from the church I was serving at the time. The last Christmas Eve service concluded shortly before midnight. I greeted the people as they left and then drove home. Amber and Benjamin were both sleeping. I wrapped Amber’s gift and placed it under the tree. I couldn’t help but smell the fresh pine needles and the sap from the truck of the tree. I then looked at an ornament we have of a manger. It was right in front of my face. It was lost during that Christmas season up to that point. There were too many lights on the tree and too many other ornaments to compete with. There I was, in a holy place. With the busyness of the season, I almost missed it:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. –John 1
God is with us—He always has been and always will be. To the busy parent, the person who is alone, the addict, the hopeless, the hopeful, the dying, the living, the young, the old, the sinner, the saint, the bitter, the broken, the hurting, the proud, the hurter, the helpful, and the helpless—God is with us—full of grace and truth.
My prayer for us is that we don’t let life get in the way of recognizing that the One who gives us life is always with us.
Merry Christmas,
Craig
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