Christmas Motions

For years I was just going through the motions of celebrating Christmas. I would decorate, send Christmas cards, buy presents, and go from house to house visiting family. Although I have always enjoyed celebrating Christmas, year after year I found myself dreading the countdown to December 25th. Every year my Christmas gift list got longer and longer. We went from spending a couple of hundred dollars to spending a couple thousand. Our children’s present wish lists were starting to get excessive and expense. I started allowing myself to get stressed about needing to buy certain gifts for those certain people in the family, hoping that it would be just what they wanted and what if it wasn’t? UGH!! “I just wish Christmas would hurry up and come and go! I can’t wait till it’s over!” I started finding myself complaining about the holiday. I was starting to become a Grinch! What happened?? I used to love Christmas!

I can tell you what happened to me; perhaps someone else can relate. I allowed a worldly mentality to come in and consume my idea of what Christmas was supposed to be about. I stopped focusing on the reason for the season, and as a result I could no longer rejoice or truly celebrate.

For the past couple of years now, my husband and I have been led by the Lord to re-evaluate our hearts and our focus during the Christmas season. The Holy Spirit has been faithful to teach and correct us where we have gone wrong. (John 14:26, 2 Tim. 3:16) He is filling us with new understanding and revelation to be handed down to our children. He is revealing to our family the true meaning of Christmas, and how we should rejoice and celebrate the birth of our Savior.

One of these lessons came a couple of weeks ago at a Wednesday night church service. The altar call was made, and I watched people moved by the Spirit of God to go to the foot of the cross for salvation. I became overwhelmed with great joy and love. I turned and looked at my father, and my spirit rejoiced inside of me because after years of praying for him he finally got saved this year. To have him there with me worshiping, praising, and receiving the Word of God always brings me so much joy. I began to reflect over the past couple of months: not only did my dad surrender to Jesus, but my entire immediate family had been saved and baptized in Christ Jesus. Suddenly I realized that this is what we are really celebrating during Christmas. We are celebrating the Gift of Salvation and the Source of Salvation, Jesus Christ. We are celebrating the birth of our Savior who was born to die and defeat sin and death so that all of us who believe in Him would be saved.

“For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

I experienced overwhelming joy at this revelation that had come to life in my family this year like never before. Luke 2 came alive to me!

“And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I BRING YOU GOOD NEWS OF A GREAT JOY THAT WILL BE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE. FOR UNTO YOU IS BORN THIS DAY IN THE CITY OF DAVID A SAVIOR, WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:9-12

If we allow our focus during the Christmas season to be about having to fulfill long wish lists, giving and receiving gifts, and spending excessive amounts of money (that usually we don’t even have), then we are just going through worldly motions of celebrating Christmas, which will not ever bring true joy. These are all just distractions meant to stress us out and keep us from rejoicing in the true meaning of Christmas.

When we received Jesus, the Gift of Salvation who is also the Light of the World, He put His light inside of us so that we could shine bright for the entire world to see. This is the time of year that people really need to see Jesus shining through us. We should be like the star of Bethlehem which led the wise men to the Lord. We can shine during this season and all throughout the year by giving priceless gifts such as true love, understanding, forgiveness, peace, a kind word, a sincere smile, a joke, or a shoulder to cry on. We should be ready to share the gift of the Good News of Christmas with others. Telling them about the Gift of Salvation that we received and how they too can have it. Jesus is the best gift we can give anyone.

I pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to reveal the spiritual meaning and gifts of Christmas to our family and to yours too. Lord help us to keep our focus this Christmas and the Christmases to come so that we are not just going through the motions. We want to be shining stars that lead others to the manger and then to the cross. Thank you Father for sending your Son to save us.

Merry Christmas to you all and Happy Birthday to Jesus!