Christmas is Friday and it feels like it, for the most part. Except for one very overwhelming fact – we are in a global pandemic, which means the holidays will look a little different this year. The trees will still go up and there will be presents under the tree if they’re not already. But for some of us, the holidays don’t feel quite the same because it’s our first without a person or people we love. Some of us are apart from our family members because of the pandemic and some of us simply feel there is nothing to celebrate but for the latter, I have a remedy, a simple fact that is exciting, is transcendent and that will never change, pandemic or not and it is the entire reason we celebrate Christmas – the true reason there will always be a reason to celebrate. We may lose sight of it, as a country, and get lost in the idea of Santa and gifts, but what we can celebrate and what we should be rejoicing in is the fact that Jesus is born and by extraordinary circumstances no less. 

To quote a Christmas song I listened to growing up, we need a little Christmas right this very minute and I am not talking about the gifts, but the promise of Christ and the intrinsic hope and joy that emanates from having a living Savior and if ever there was a time we needed hope, we needed joy, and our faith restored, it is this year that has been unparalleled in every way possible.

It is so easy to look back at this year with despair, with immense disappointment, and just shock at how so many things have not gone the way we anticipated and that certainly is one way to look at this year. Or we can be grateful that we have lived through this year and that we have breath in our body. We can rejoice in the fact that despite all that we have lost, our lives have not been one of those things. And for an even better and more accurate overview of what this year has truly been like, we can trace God in all the blessings that have been bestowed upon us this year – the victories, the triumphs, safe passage to and from work and wherever else we have traveled to, and portions of health and strength, etc. We have all been kept by God this year and if that is not a testimony, then I don’t know what is. If that is not a reason for several sighs of relief, then I don’t know what it is. But if you are tired from this year and all the burdens you have had to bear, as it is possible to acknowledge all that God has blessed us with and still be exhausted from all that the world has thrown your way this week, this month and if we’re being honest, this year, then thanks be to God for Christmas – for this holiday. At this moment, you may feel downtrodden and depleted and even sad, but take heart and joy in the fact that in just two days, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and it is impossible to truly relish and rejoice in that fact, in this blessing God ordained before the foundations of the world for our salvation and to restore our relationship with Him, and remain anything but joyful and elated at the immensely unique opportunity by which we have been bequeathed abundant life and relationship with God through Christ – if we so choose. We have been given immediate access to joy, to life, to faith, to hope, and to love, as we have never known – a love that is sacrificial, is provisional and that saved mankind.

So as you unwrap gifts this Christmas, remember the very best gift is not under the tree but because of that gift, because of Jesus Christ, joy, peace, hope, faith, and love are not only within your grasp but they are imminent when we live our lives and perceive life itself not through the lens of what we have lost, but what we have gained. Not by barriers that have stood in our way, but by what we through Christ have overcome. Not by that which has shackled and beset us, but by the freedom we were bestowed through the birth, life, and death of Christ. We forget so often that Christmas is not about the gifts that are under the tree, but the ultimate gift that was the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, the son of Man who fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, the Savior who died on the Cross, paying the sin debt in full. By all means, put a smile on your family and friends’ faces by giving gifts, but do not forget to celebrate Jesus Christ – the reason for this season. Our Brother. Our Savior. Our Friend.