For stores, it began as soon as July. Craft stores like Michaels got a head start on the rest, while stores like Target waited until October to provide an aisle next to the Halloween section, intimating that once “trick or treat” is done “ho, ho, ho” takes over. For some it began with the beginning of November. Dumping their carved pumpkins on the curb, they began searching for something to decorate their now bare porches. In my town, Christmas wreaths were already displayed several weeks before Thanksgiving. And the day after Thanksgiving? We pile into our cars in the early morning hours, eager to complete our Christmas shopping, at a significantly reduced price, no less. We dash madly into the “Christmas season,” humming to ourselves, “It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas.”
What does the secular world’s Christmas look like? At best it is warm and fuzzy, if vague, notions of “Christmas cheer,” “goodwill to men,” and lots of references to bells ringing. At worst it is a stampede of determined mothers trampling one another for the newest toys the day after Thanksgiving. Christmas for a lot of people starts as soon as the weather turns cooler. Visions of sugar plums begin their dance sooner and sooner, it seems. Part of this, of course, is due to the retailers needing to extend their holiday surge in sales as long as possible. But, I’m also beginning to realize that it goes much deeper than that.
We really need Christmas. But what kind of Christmas do we need? Look at all of the other American holidays throughout the year--New Years is for resolutions, fancy parties, and maybe some champagne; Valentine’s Day is for paper hearts, chocolates, and flowers; Fourth of July means fireworks, barbecues, and relatives; Halloween means playing dress up, eating candy, carving pumpkins; Thanksgiving is for turkey and more relatives. And Christmas? Is what distinguishes it from the others the exchanging of gifts?
I don’t think so.
Because if that were true, if what we really needed at Christmas was some warm feelings and presents under the tree, then we wouldn’t leave the Christmas season feeling glutted and tired. We’d have a bounce in our steps and be rejuvenated. Instead, we tear down the Christmas decorations as soon as possible, making sure that not one sprig of holly is left. We’re so eager to have Christmas, yet when it actually comes, we experience a letdown. We are left unsatisfied, sometimes a little bitter. Wasn’t Christmas better in the old days? In our childhood?
Christmas just isn’t treated like Christmas anymore. The world waited for six thousand years for the birth of Christ, the one who would save us from our sins. Two thousand years after the coming of Christ, and we have a really hard time waiting until Christmas for Christmas to start. The time before Christmas day is not supposed to be filled with parties and decorations, and Christmas music ad nauseam. That’s what Christmas Day and the twelve days after are for. Remember the Twelve Days of Christmas? It’s not just a quaint little song that doesn’t make any sense (how exactly would you deliver ten lords a-leaping?). And it’s definitely not the Twelve Days Before Christmas.
Remember when you were a little kid, waiting until Christmas morning when you could open your presents? I know that I always had a hard time sleeping the night before, eager to usher in the new morning, and with it, surprises in the stockings, presents under the tree, but most importantly a baby in a manger. Joy is increased with expectation.
As my good friend Cecilia reminded me the other day, hope is perhaps the most human of virtues. “We are a people of hope,” she wrote on her Facebook status. We are fallen, yes. But we also have a savior, one who is coming. We await the time when we will be reunited with him in heaven, and with joyful expectation, we look forward to his Second Coming. Even if it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, Christmas is not here. It’s still a little less than a month away. Let us first prepare our hearts before we prepare our homes. Let’s spend this time in hopeful awe, recalling the expectation of the Jewish people and remembering that we, too, are waiting.
Look around you. More than ever, this world needs Jesus. We don’t need fleeting pleasures or warm fuzzies. We need the light of the world. Come, thou long expected Jesus. Come.
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