As a child, I could hardly wait for Christmas to arrive. The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas each seemed at least a week long! My brain knew December 25 would come, but my heart felt like Christmas might never arrive. Christmas meant presents – often just one present – but I was certain it would be exactly what I wanted and for which I longed. I truly feel sorry for kids today who get so much during the year that Christmas holds very little meaning.
There was never enough money to decorate like we do today. We had two strings of lights (the large ones) which, when lit, would spin the electric meter. We had one string of bubbling lights and a few ornaments that we stored and used year after year. It was not uncommon for one of us kids to bring the school class tree home with us on the bus on the last day of classes, complete with the class-made decorations still attached. If another classmate asked for the “class tree” before us, we would grab the double-bladed axe and cut a small cedar from the roadside or from our pasture. An evening would be spent popping and stringing corn – and that was before “microwave popcorn”.
There was the important shopping trip, where Dad and Mom would take us to TG&Y so we kids could shop for them. I cannot remember a single gift we got Dad. (He tells me we most often got him socks or handkerchiefs.) But the small ceramic animals we got Mom are still on her shelf at home, although Mom has been in Heaven for over six years.
We always helped with the making of cookies, pies, and Dad usually got a ham from work that we coated in brown sugar and ringed with pineapple slices and cherries. The potatoes and onions came from under the house where they had been stored since harvest. There were greens fresh from the garden (which none of us kids liked very well), home-canned green beans, and always corn bread with melted butter, which we had churned in a gallon jar. There was peanut brittle when our peanuts produced properly. What a feast! Of course, usually there were a few non-family members present, which made Christmas even more enjoyable.
Although the boyhood Christmas memories are from northeastern Oklahoma and Dad and Mom moved to Arkansas long after I had left home, going home for the holidays means going to central Arkansas where Dad still lives. I still enjoy the idea of “going home for the holidays” although it has been several years since I have spent Christmas with my parents. Now going home means at least a 12-hour car trip, but the effort of Christmas never seems too great for the rewards of Christmas!
Let’s go back to our memories of that first Christmas, when it seemed that “no one was at home”. That first Christmas had not been truly expected in a long time. No preparations had been made. There seemed to be no sense of anticipation. Everything seemed to be “as usual”. There had not been even a fresh Word from God in about 400 years. Now, imagine the history transforming impact when Christmas came to the Bethlehem stable! Let’s examine Jesus’ birthday together.
Christmas first came to God the Father’s heart. We do not know exactly when God felt His great love, so great that He willingly sent His only Son to earth. But, we do know that it was His great love which conceived a Savior for mankind’s sins. Christmas would mean He would send His Son. It meant God would come to us, which is the meaning of “Immanuel”.
Christmas was next to find the angels who were dispatched to make the announcements. We know that angelic messengers were sent to Mary and Joseph, as well as the shepherds. Heaven must have been astounded with the unprecedented possibility that God would become flesh – that the Creator would become creation!
The first “earthlings” to know that Christmas was coming were the Old Testament Prophets who spoke of things they could not have possibly understood at the time. How cold one baby be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace? How was it possible for one child to be born in Bethlehem, called out of Egypt and called a Nazarene? Now, this side of Christmas we can understand these mysteries, but the Prophets could not. Yet, Jesus was everything they said He would be and much more!
Then Christmas came to a Jewish virgin with startling, life-impacting news – that she would become the Mother of the Messiah! This far away from the culture of that day, we cannot fully understand the sacrifice that Mary was making when she agreed to becoming pregnant! All her dreams were shattered in that “good news”. And, can you imagine what Joseph thought about Christmas coming the way it did! This devout groom-to-be was so shocked that he almost cancelled his wedding!
Christmas came to Wise Men who expectantly followed a star-sighting and a prophecy that transported them far from home and family.
Christmas came to an innkeeper, who did not know it was Christmas, had not planned for it, and frankly had no room for it!
Christmas came to shepherds. Those who were among the lowest on the social scale, doing what they had been hired to do, watching flocks of sheep, tending their own business, were interrupted by an angelic choir. Immediately, their routine was changed and to the stable they went to find the Christ of Christmas.
Christmas would come to King Herod, who should have been delighted to know that Heaven had come to earth, but we know that he tried to destroy it!
Christmas came! Some did not know it. Some did not want it – even tired to destroy it. Some could hardly believe it. But, all their lives and futures changed by it!
Every Christmas we are in danger of missing Christmas personally! We allow familiarity and business to overshadow the freshness of the season. We all need to sit where they sat, to marvel with Joseph and Mary at the truly incomparable news the angels brought. We need to welcome the interruptions of the good tidings of great joy as the wide-eyed shepherds. We need to turn from the routine and follow the supernatural with the wise men as they searched for a Savior!
Often, even with all the preparations we make, we still do not feel like Christmas. The reason is that we must make our way to Christmas!
Joseph and Mary had to come to Bethlehem from their homes in Nazareth. The shepherds had to come to the stable from their Judean hillsides. The wise men traveled from the far country to the place where the young child was. They all came to Christmas, when they received their tailor-made invitations! I do not believe you or I can get there for less!
How can we get to Christmas? We must leave behind some of our comforts. We will have to interrupt some routines to give Christmas its due properly! Some will have to go far where they feel most at home to experience the life-changing visit with the King of Glory!
The invitations have been sent to the “whosoever will” – now Christmas is waiting for our responses! RSVP now! Do not miss a moment! Come to the Christ of Christmas and allow Christmas to be God’s special gift to you!
