I have always enjoyed Christmastime. As a child, I looked forward to it because of the delicious food my mom would cook, the people I’d get to see, and perhaps more importantly, the new clothes my parents would buy for me and my siblings.
As I matured, Christmas became more than just about the memories and material things associated with the season. It became a season of introspection, a time for reflecting on the "reason for the season," as they say. Christmas has now evolved into a joyfully weighty season.
In the last few decades, Christmas has become very consumeristic like any other holiday in our society. It’s about the gifts, the lights, the trees, the music, the food, the festivities, and whatever else fits. There is also another end—slowing down, resting, and refreshing oneself before the year ends and another begins, so we can jump into the new one with full force.
With either end, the common denominator is that Christmas has become about me, my joy, my entertainment—my, my, and mine. So, it may be confusing to hear anyone call Christmas a "weighty" season, but it is—laden with the significance of the Savior’s birth and the immense love that it represents.
Christmas now reminds me of my need for a Savior. It reminds me that I was such a wretched sinner that nothing and no one could atone for my sins. And with that being the case, I had no hope. I stood condemned. Yet, God, being so rich in mercy, made a way to redeem my life (Ephesians 2:4-8). This God, who was my judge and prosecutor, chose to show love and mercy.
In His perfect time, will, and way, He became flesh and took on my punishment. This God chose to be born as a babe, even though He is the God who was, is, and is to come. He chose to die for the sins of the world, even though He is the very life itself. Just who does that? I don’t personally know anybody who’s had someone die for them. That would be amazing love. But there is a God, the Creator, who died for the creation—you and me.
So yes, Christmas is a weighty season because it reminds me that I was so far gone I needed nothing short of a miracle to be saved. And that’s precisely what God did—what was 'impossible for me,' as I couldn't save myself (Luke 18:25-26). It is weighty because it reminds me that such extravagant love, unconfined mercy, and costly sacrifice demand my all in response. It is weighty because remembering my Lord’s first coming reminds me of His second coming at which I must give an account of how I lived the precious life He bought with such a hefty price—His own life (2 Corinthians 5:9-11).
But Christmas is also a season of hope, peace, joy, and love. Hope that a Savior has come and made a way, and because of Him, I have a living hope. He is my Living Hope, who has atoned for all my sins and made me right with God, so I have peace—peace with God and the peace of God. For that, my once weary soul rejoices with inexpressible joy and marvels at the amazing love with which He loved and still loves you, me, and the whole world.
Have you come to know and believe this wonderfully majestic, mercifully just, faithfully loving, and forever holy Lord and Savior? His name is Jesus, and He is Eternal Life. Let every heart prepare Him room and bow down in worship!
Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down His life for His friends. – John 15:13 (NASB)
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