(Originally posted December 1, 2021)
What’s your favorite Christmas movie? Is it something wholesome and heartwarming? Do you have one that is so loved it’s become tradition to gather the family so you can all watch it together? More than any other holiday, Christmas has become the one surrounded with the most ritual and tradition. From the movies you watch, to how and when you start putting up decorations, to when the music you listen to becomes exclusively Christmas themed, it feels like a switch gets flipped and we want the world to be a little more wholesome and hopeful.
That’s why, I think, we all have a favorite Christmas movie. Sure, they all have that moment where Christmas is almost ruined, but something happens to save the day—the lights work, the meal is edible, people make it home just in time—and everyone lives happily ever after. Seeing things tied up in a neat little bow takes us out of the chaos that is Christmas in real life.
In real life you must resist the urge to “bless” out the person who cut you off in the parking lot. The turkey can be dry. You have to promise someone their gift is on the way because it got lost in shipping, (and sometimes it “got lost in shipping” because we just ran out of time). I want to encourage you to slow down this season and let go of creating the perfect Norman Rockwell style Christmas.
Christmas isn’t about getting that perfect family photo. Christmas is the time we set aside each year to remember the birth of our savior and the hope we have as sinners. Luke 1:26-33 starts the story like this,
26 …the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” …“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Like Mary, we can be surprised by Christmas, it came out of nowhere and became the most important event of her life. Don’t let the distractions of the holiday season pull you away from the reason that we celebrate.
Remember hope!