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The Real Reason We Should Say Merry Christmas

by | Dec 14, 2016 | Advent, Learning Story, Seasons & Holidays

The Real Reason We Should Say Merry Christmas

Should we really say “Merry Christmas”?

It’s been years now since the heated controversies began about various retail outlets changing their official greeting from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays.”

Forget that controversy – there’s a better reason to ask if we should really say Merry Christmas. It has more to do with the sometimes hard realities of Christmas.

We are well into the Advent season now, and it’s probably a good time to tell the truth about the first Christmas:

The first Christmas arrived in a season of suffering and silence.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get this very mixed-up notion that Christmas should be a season of continual merriment and joy. Then it really bothers me when I am confronted by the ravages of a world wrecked by sin and sorrow:

  • Destruction: unsuspecting victims murdered en masse, wars and rumors of wars
  • Disease: balded children fighting leukemia; balded moms fighting breast cancer…
  • Division: hatred and hostility dividing people groups, marriages ripped by cruelty, sweet friendships soured by gossip
  • Darkness: severe depression eclipsing the light of any hope…

Here’s what I forget: people long-ago also suffered the shalom wrecked by the fall – destruction, disease, division, darkness – it was all there, and yet God had been silent for 400 years.

The first “Merry Christmas”: GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY!

It was into this sorrowful, silent season the angel Gabriel burst with the original Christmas card:

Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you! Luke 1:28

THE LORD IS WITH US!!! That’s the game-changer. That’s the REAL REASON we can say a whole-hearted “MERRY CHRISTMAS”!

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone” (Isaiah 9:2).

Into a sorrowful, silent season, the angel arrived with the first good tidings of great joy! Share on XAccording to this gospel, those who have just a mustard seed of faith in Christ as Savior are living a new life, whether it appears that way or not. We still struggle with sin, but we do not mourn as those without hope.

We live with the memory and daily evidence of Christ-redeeming and restoring —

We wait for the Lord to come again and make it all right:

“They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9

“In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world!” Jn. 16:33

And so we can rejoice on the days when Christmas doesn’t feel merry. This is not a strange path we walk.

And we will not walk this path forever.

And so, in the name of the one who has humbled himself to enter this world as a babe in the manger, in the name of the One who will come again as Redeeming King to heal finally and forever, I wish you a …

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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How to Suck Christmas Joy out of Everything: An Advent Story

by | Dec 5, 2016 | Advent, Seasons & Holidays

How to Suck Christmas Joy out of Everything: An Advent Story

Or why we really need Jesus to COME…

Friday night at our church Christmas party, I was reminded — by a kindred spirit — of how I used to suck the joy out of Christmas and Advent for my family…by holding on so very tightly to MY WAY of doing things…

…and how kind and patient God has been, daily, moment by moment, transforming me into the likeness of his Son, even when it has seemed that nothing is actually happening.

Here’s the story — maybe you can relate? (Please tell me you can relate!)

I LOVE Advent. I’m not honestly as crazy about the Christmas part with the gifts to buy and holiday parties to attend (classic introvert:-), but I really love me some Advent Jesse Tree.

Which is why I got a little peeved the other night at the dinner table when I asked one of the two guys (my husband and my son) to read the Advent devotional and they both responded with the enthusiasm of a snail. (I had lost my voice or I would have read it myself.)

After I encouraged them, “Don’t hate — appreciate,” my husband raised his enthusiasm to turtle level and began to read.
(Has anyone ever wanted you to feel excited when you just didn’t have the energy? Then you know how bad I was making him feel:-).

Oh, but now he left out all of the Advent activities (which of course I knew because I LOVE ADVENT!).
(Have you ever tried to do what someone asked and you still didn’t do it the way they wanted, so they still weren’t happy?)

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I was ruining everyone’s night with my demands that they enjoy the Advent devotional — MY WAY!

(Note that “everyone” was only two plus me now, which was part of the problem — I was missing my full nest (even though the other kids, had they been home, would have also easily have lost their joy by now.)

And then, into this weary, sin-worn scene, Jesus came.

My husband jokingly offered, “I can sing the song if you want.”
I smiled. But I suggested that maybe our son, who is a singer of the “choral” variety, might do it.

Being a good sport, he agreed.

“But wait!” I ran into the other room, grabbed a snowman Christmas candle, turned out all the lights in the kitchen, and lit the fat little ball of wax.
I was [kind of] joking — one of the suggested activities was to light your first candle in the advent wreath, which OF COURSE we don’t have.

He's shown up in a scene as messy as the manger; he’ll show up in the mess of your heart right now. Share on X

But what happened is that…
CALM arrived in the room and in our hearts.
Our son began to sing.
And stillness settled.
And we saw Jesus.

The hymn for that night was “O come, O come Emmanuel.” Read it or sing it. Then…
Dare to ask Jesus to come.
He has shown up in a scene as messy as the manger, and he’ll show up in the mess of your heart right now.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times did’st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Photo Credit: Copyright: <a href=’http://www.123rf.com/profile_teraberb’>teraberb / 123RF Stock Photo</a>