Christmas

This time of year is insanity. And sometimes I wonder how we have made it what it is.
We have all that we need throughout the year, mostly, right? Yet when it comes to a time where we remember Jesus, for this one day that is here to look to Jesus...what have we done?


Now, I LOVE Christmas. I love it because you get to make a list of "wants" and send it to the family, right? Then you get to stuff your face with sweets and a Thanksgiving meal all over. 
I love being able to come home and see my family and to love the moments and memories we have together. Where we decorate the tree, I get to put the manger scene together, and to make Christmas cookies that sometimes turn out brutal, like a one-legged gingerbread man. You know what I am talking about. And sometimes we take it to the next level and put blood there. Don't pretend you have never done it.


But the more that I have seen the world, the more in this season, I am in tears.
Tears that cry out for Jesus to come and bring heaven to earth. This time is the time that I am so overwhelmed with what we have become. So overwhelmed that most of us hate this time of year, because you don't have the money to buy the gifts, or the time to do all the shopping.


And yes, we see things on facebook, on the news, that remind us of our consumerism and we all "like" them and say "wow, conviction" BUT YET WE STILL IGNORE THAT IT IS ACTUALLY TRUE.
That we don't care enough to change. And yes, I am saying this to make some of us feel bad, because frankly- we should be completely ashamed of what we have made it. I know I rebuke it and say its just whatever, because it is speaking directly to the sin that I have ignored.

And don't get me wrong- I am so very guilty of it all with you. I am slowly coming out of the mindset that this should be anything of what we have made it. That if we took why this season IS, then maybe, just maybe, we could really sing...


Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,
BORN IS THE KING OF ISRAEL


Oh come thou day-spring come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here
And drive away the shades of night
And pierce the clouds and bring us light!


Son of God
Love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace! 


These are beautiful words that are a praise to Jesus, in the simplicity of their hearts, they cried out saying, "Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let every heart prepare Him room. The glories of His righteousness and WONDERS of His love."


It would be a whole culture change, a whole new way of thinking. 
And how do you make that change without coming off as judgmental? Because if we are honest, if I am honest- I look at families that I have seen do this well and I just think, "wow, way to make everyone else look bad...holier than thou." 
Or how do you tell your kids, when all their friends from school come back from break, bragging about what they got for Christmas, while your kid says- I celebrated Jesus.


And I feel like this is what stops us. We see the hurt and we feel the hurt, but we, I, am not bold enough  to make that change. Because I am selfish being that loves gifts. Most of us could agree with that statement. And we love to give gifts to our friends, our kids, because we see the joy it brings.


And you have seen the chaos of Black Friday. 
What if we fought for Jesus' name like that? That we fought for this season to be His. To be wonderfully in His presence?


I think we forget that life with Jesus really is far more, far beyond, more full of joy, than we even allow Him to show. Because we are so consumed. So very consumed.
Because not many of us have actually fully experienced the love of God, to where there is NOTHING else in this place that we crave more.


Even as I type this, I feel conviction in my heart, because the reality of it is that we are selfish. It's that feeling of knowing that we have made Jesus this man who just wants to rob us of the joy of this season, when in reality- HE is the reason that we have this joy. He is the joy that came! 


And I haven't gotten it all figured out, because I don't think that Jesus is angry that we love to bless people with gifts, and to show them that we love them, that we really do care for them- to show that in a form of a gift. But it makes me angry that we have made it JUST that. That it becomes something that we see as we deserve. 


Yet we neglect the needs of others throughout most of the year.
We can spend $450 billion dollars a year on Christmas, but we can't buy our homeless friend lunch, or we can't send money for villages to have clean water. I mean it goes on and on, but this time of year it especially hurts.


Something to think about as you wrap gifts.
Find somewhere to serve someone else this Christmas, and make it something you do regularly. I know my family has taught me this, and it makes getting that gift and singing that carol that much more meaningful. Because when I look back, who the stink even remembers what I got last Christmas. But I do remember giving the gingerbread a bloody leg with Emily.


Now that we know, we have an obligation. It's the reality that we live in. It sucks, it's not fair, but it's the reality we have made. But when we pray, "Jesus we want earth as it is in heaven," we have to start somewhere.


I pray that we can experience the love of Jesus in a way that it is what we crave, that we see that there is no better gift. Cheesy, maybe? But I fully believe He is better. 


Worship fully.