Christmas is coming upon us quickly and so ignites the flurries of the season that will result in a day of celebration. We speak of it as a day for giving, spending time with family, and just an all-over time for enjoyment. Yet, many of us wind up feeling stress, agitation, and anxiety.
We make perfectionist efforts to display our homes just right and to buy the best gifts, remaining hopeful that we’ll receive what we would normally feel guilty buying for ourselves. The discipline of staying true to a budget is overruled by in-the-moment shopping and bill payments get waylaid until the New Year. We can get lost in the elaborate preparation of meals and hors d'oeuvres, desserts and candy. Then there’s the emotions that fly around, in anticipation of the people we have never seen before and of those we’d rather not see at all, like the in-laws and distant cousins reserved for only once a year.
For some, Christmas Eve initiates the first gifts being unwrapped. For others, it begins bright and early Christmas morning. Although the kids may wake early, eager to discover what presents await them, adults are just as curious to see what new toys they got. We fumble through the wrapping paper and boxes, searching for the very last one to be opened. That’s followed by a quick tidying up before we enjoy the company of our families and friends. In the mix, we throw in snowball fights and sledding, everyone getting too wet and tired. At the end of the day, there are slumbering bodies amid the wired ones who had more than their fill of desert. Meanwhile, those who must return to their homes, make a list in their head of the exchanges they’ll be making as they head out the door. Friends and relatives staying over another night are given blankets and pillows for the stay.
Is Christmas just another excuse to get together or are we celebrating something important?
As the angel told Joseph in Matthew 1:21, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
We make perfectionist efforts to display our homes just right and to buy the best gifts, remaining hopeful that we’ll receive what we would normally feel guilty buying for ourselves. The discipline of staying true to a budget is overruled by in-the-moment shopping and bill payments get waylaid until the New Year. We can get lost in the elaborate preparation of meals and hors d'oeuvres, desserts and candy. Then there’s the emotions that fly around, in anticipation of the people we have never seen before and of those we’d rather not see at all, like the in-laws and distant cousins reserved for only once a year.
For some, Christmas Eve initiates the first gifts being unwrapped. For others, it begins bright and early Christmas morning. Although the kids may wake early, eager to discover what presents await them, adults are just as curious to see what new toys they got. We fumble through the wrapping paper and boxes, searching for the very last one to be opened. That’s followed by a quick tidying up before we enjoy the company of our families and friends. In the mix, we throw in snowball fights and sledding, everyone getting too wet and tired. At the end of the day, there are slumbering bodies amid the wired ones who had more than their fill of desert. Meanwhile, those who must return to their homes, make a list in their head of the exchanges they’ll be making as they head out the door. Friends and relatives staying over another night are given blankets and pillows for the stay.
Is Christmas just another excuse to get together or are we celebrating something important?
As the angel told Joseph in Matthew 1:21, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
"For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:16
that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:16
