I have always loved Christmas.
I love the lights. I love the presents. I love the time with family. I love the good food. I love the Christmas Eve service at church. I love the decorations. I love the Christmas specials on TV. I love the songs. I love everything about it.
But I especially love to celebrate the fact the God chose to come make himself known to the world as a small, helpless infant. What tidings of comfort of joy!
I must have had some pretty magical Christmases growing up because my goal each year as I celebrated Christmas with my family was to make sure our celebration was just as magical as it had been the year before.
I saw it as my job to make sure our family stuck to our time-honored, magical Christmas traditions.
I called myself the “Christmas Queen”, but looking back on it, I think a more appropriate name would have been the “Christmas Tyrant”.
One Christmas my mom brought home a pretty floral decoration to hang above the mantle of the fireplace. The Christmas Tyrant protested because that is not how we had done it the year before. If we hung up that pretty floral decoration, where would the light-up Santa go?
Another Christmas it was decided that we would eat our Christmas Eve dinner at the kitchen table and not at the dining room table the way we always had. My family is still recovering from the fallout of the battle that ensued.
As my siblings and I got older, my brother began to become less interested in following some of our family Christmas traditions, such as decorating the Christmas tree together while listening to Amy Grant’s “Home for Christmas” and breaking out into a dance party in the living room. I just could not understand why my teenage brother would rather go skiing than dance around the living room with his two teenage sisters.
I even insisted that all television watching in the month of December had to be Christmas themed. Christmas movies and tv shows – yes. Everything else – the tyrant said no way.
I was so determined to have my magical, family Christmas experience each and every year that I required my family to adhere to my overly strict Christmas tradition rules whether or not it was in everyone’s best interest.
I hope you are not and never have been a crazy Christmas Tyrant like me. But I think we can all relate to the desire to have a happy, magical Christmas experience as we look back on the first coming of Christ and wait in eager anticipation for his second coming.
What younger me failed to understand that older me is beginning to realize is that as much as I want that magical Christmas experience each and every year, Christmas is broken.
When sin entered the world, it left it’s ugly mark on everything including the most magical time of the year.
Creation – The Christmas We Were Created For
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15-16)
The reason Christmas is such a magical time for those of us who believe has nothing to do with light-up Santas, or Christmas Eve dinner, or tree-decorating dance parties. It is magical because we are celebrating Emmanuel – God with us.
When Adam and Eve were created in the garden, they dwelt in perfect harmony with God. They walked with him, they spoke to him, they experienced the fullness of joy that comes with being in the Lord’s presence (Psalm 16:11). They experienced the abundant joyful life they were created for.
But when they succumbed to temptation and plunged the world into sin, everything became broken – including the fullness of joy they experienced by living life in God’s presence.
For thousands of years afterwards, God’s people would experience a never-ending cycle of sin and repentance, never experiencing the full joy that comes from dwelling with their Creator.
Until, Christmas morning.
God’s people could not clean themselves up enough to get to God, so God came to them.
The reason Christmas is so incredibly magical is because it shows us just the beginning of the lengths God was willing to go to to restore to us the life we were created for. A life lived joyfully in his presence.
Fall – The Brokenness of Christmas
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— (Romans 5:12)
What younger Katie was too naive to understand was that the restoration of our relationship with our Father is not yet complete. Christ has not yet returned to make all things new, so the magical celebration of Christ’s birth remains broken.
At the very least this means that I will never experience the truly magical Christmas celebration I long to have – no matter how many rules I put in place to ensure it.
But far worse than not experiencing the magical Christmas I envision is the reality that for some, Christmas causes far more pain than magic. I’m thinking of those who will be celebrating Christmas without some of their loved ones this year. I’m thinking of those who will wake up on Christmas morning in a hospital bed – their battle with cancer not yet won. I’m thinking of those with broken families who will experience far more hardship than joy as they gather together around the Christmas tree.
What is meant to be a joyful, wonderful, magical time of the year has been viciously marred by the ugliness of sin. For some that means that Christmas is more synonymous with pain than it is with joy.
Redemption – How Jesus Saves Christmas
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18)
But there is good news. Oh such good news!
The reality of the babe in the manger is that God has come to do something about our brokenness. He has come to mend our marred relationship with himself.
The beauty of Christmas is that Christ has stepped into our brokenness not only to experience it for himself so that he might sympathize with us, but to victoriously overcome it.
The helpless babe in the manger became the triumphant victor on the cross.
So there is great hope for those of us who are experiencing a less than magical or even outright painful Christmas. We can rejoice, even in the midst of pain, that Christ came to dwell with us.
Because Christ came at Christmas, those celebrating without their loved ones, can one day be reunited with them.
Because Christ came at Christmas, those suffering from illness can one day be made completely whole.
Because Christ came at Christmas, those with broken families will one day experience the love and relationship of the complete, perfect family of God.
And you can bet that our Christmas celebrations in heaven will be far more magical than we can even possibly imagine!
Restoration – Restoring the Magic of Christmas
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)
Because Jesus came once, we can hold fast to the promise that he will come again.
And when he does he will restore everything to the way it should be. Our broken relationship with God will be perfectly mended. Our broken Christmases will be made whole.
But the beauty of the gospel is that this restoration can begin today, even this very moment.
For those who are in Christ, God is working in and through us even now to restore our relationship with him.
The broken Katie who believed that the magical Christmas experience could be obtained by following a bunch of self-made rules, has had her relationship with God partially restored. I no longer need the tree or the lights or the TV specials or the decorations to have a wonderful Christmas. My heart has been drawn closer to Jesus since of the years of being a Christmas Tyrant so that my joy at Christmas is made full in Christ alone and not in any of the superficial things the season has to offer.
Because Christ came to restore, the mourning sister who is drawn close to Christ through the death of her beloved brother can experience joy at Christmas even in the midst of her sorrow.
Because Christ came to restore, the cancer sufferer who is drawn close to Christ through his suffering can experience joy at Christmas even in the midst of sickness.
Because Christ came to restore, the broken family member who is drawn close to Christ during family trials can experience joy at Christmas even in the midst of discord.
Christ began to restore our broken Christmas on the very first Christmas.
And those of us who are in Him wait expectantly for the day he will bring that restoration to completion and we will celebrate the triumphant day of his birth with him, face to face.
No more let sins and sorrows grow
Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found
Far as, far as the curse is found
Joy to the World (Isaac Watts, 1719)