As the fourth Sunday of Advent arrives I must tell you that I love Christmas The lights, the music, the beauty, the decor, maybe not the weather of Christmas, but everything else of Christmas I truly do. Christmas is a season that intensified everything in our life - the relationships - the beauty and the challenges. Now, I am not sure about you - but I am generally open to both traditional and contemporary things. But when it comes to Christmas - I am a bit of traditionalist. I like the traditional hymns of Christmas, I like a good size Christmas tree. I enjoy the traditional actions of Christmas and checking my stocking for a visit from you know who... I am pretty "possessive" of Christmas. Have you ever thought about what steals Christmas.
......for example according to Statistic Canada we will spend a total of $23 billion in gift giving this year and some 63 billion on Christmas related items - (you might think I spent that just myself yesterday at Cambridge Mall).
...for example more family disagreements, more relationships, more occasions of misunderstanding happen at Christmas then any other time of the year - the number one day of the year when boyfriend/girlfriend break up - Christmas !
This is not the traditional Christmas
Now don’t get me wrong - this is my favorite time of the year....and gift giving is a part of it - after all we celebrate the greatest gift and Advent has been about preparing and giving the gift of kindness, but there are things that sometimes strive to take us away from the traditions of Christmas - so I guess the question that always comes before us “The Secret of a Spiritually Jolly Christmas” - how do we do it !
So - the Gospel to day brings us back ... it brings us home...
- Home to the real meaning of Christmas
- Home to the most magnificent truth in the entire Bible
- Home to our Lord's greatest promise
- Home to the reason we celebrate Christmas Namely this: "GOD IS WITH US!"
When we decide that Christ the great gift will be first - and the other things we do represent that great gift - well we keep things in perspective It is what Christmas is about. God is with us. The four weeks of Advent are about getting us ready for a traditional Christmas!
- They are about seeing all we do through the lens of kindness
- They are about noticing what we celebrate through the window of care and justice
- They are about celebrating those who are filling the chairs around our table not in an unhealthy way lamenting the empty chair or wishing more chairs were filled
- They are about viewing our choices not as spur of the moment reactions but responses in love to the truth that "GOD IS WITH US!"
So don’t let your Christmas be stolen "GOD IS WITH US!" - all four candles are lite. Christmas is here and we can make it traditional if all we do is about seeing, speaking and serving one another knowing "GOD IS WITH US!"