Dreaming of a Hallmark Christmas? Fantasizing about going into the woods behind your condo for that giant 15’ Spruce tree they always seem to chop down and when it gets set up at home it’s barely 6’ tall? Are you yearning for a blizzard to blanket your little town? It’s all great to have if you’ve done all your shopping and you have nowhere to go, or any dead-ends to meet. Personally, I love the green and red colors of the season, along with garland, colored string-beads, trinkets, and all the trimmings that make a tree feel and look like Christmas.
But in all it’s beauty, it doesn’t compare to the significance of the true Christmas. Yeah, yeah, true Christmas is so different from secular Christmas. One has all the pomp and glory with colors galore and snow-covered grounds, as well as toys, candies, games, etc. while the other is unattractive with suffering, waiting, injustice, persecution, even death. While one fulfills our joys and expectations for the moment, the other, the less attractive one, fulfills our deepest needs for all eternity. It is, the true Christmas; the real thing. It’s about the God who lived amongst us and experienced our struggles. Although people point fingers at Him and accuse of abandoning us, He is NOT out of touch. He knows the deal.
One Christmas features Santa in red and white descending from near heaven; the North Pole. The other, features God born of a virgin as a baby having laid aside His riches (in actual heaven) to live in poverty here that we might gain His riches when we serve Him. No, there may not be snow on the ground when you invite Him into your heart, except maybe a cold, brittle, and/or bitter heart. And no, there won’t be any magic making all your dreams come true, but knowing you’re loved unconditionally by Him, supersedes it all. The red of the true Christmas reflects His blood shed at the cross for you. White represents ridding your life of sin (Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow-Isaiah 1:18).
While here on earth we might not have a Hallmark Christmas, or a 15’ Spruce, but with Christ in our hearts, life in heaven will out-do every earthly Christmas ever celebrated.
“Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).
Merry Christmas!
Sam