Day 2497 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
Matthew 1:23 NIV
It's so easy to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas. And sadly, I have to admit that I've allowed that to happen more this year than any year before that I can remember. Not that I've forgotten what it's all about but I've allowed too many other things to get in the way. Too many things have crept in and stolen the joy that this season brings. And with the last couple of years going like they have I would imagine that I'm not the only one that feels that way.
The past couple of years have left many grasping desperately at any semblance of normalcy they can find. Seems like every day brings some new challenge or difficulty that we didn't expect. And all of it just starts piling up until it's almost hard to remember what normal felt like. But maybe we needed help seeing that our old normal wasn’t as great as we thought it was. Maybe we needed help seeing that too much of this world’s stuff had begun to overshadow what really matters.
It's amazing how quickly we lose the awe-inspiring mystery of life behind the mundanity of our daily routines. We forget to take in the beauty that's all around us because it seems like most days there's more gloom to be found. We begin losing hope in the impossible because there are times when even the possible doesn't even seem likely. We forget that this world and everything going on in isn't as big or powerful or important as it’s all often made out to be.
Mostly we forget that God is still there even though the world has tried to push Him aside. We forget that His love for us hasn't changed even though this place is pretty far from loving these days. We forget that God is still working all things for our good because we've lost the ability to dream and hope and surrender to His magnificent design as it doesn't seem to fit our schedule or our desire for the comfort of normal. We forget that it maybe His ways and His plans really are better than ours.
But these days that message seems harder to hear than before. The hustle and bustle has returned with a vengeance and our desire to return to the status quo of years gone by has left many caught in the flow of doing as everyone else does. But we can't afford to lose hold of what truly matters. We can't be in such a rush to carve out a new normal that we forget that we still have a choice when it comes to what we focus on in life.
The world may be pulling at us harder than ever to get back to normal and to go along with what everyone else is doing as we rush back to life as we once knew it. But maybe we shouldn't rush back to life as we knew it. Maybe we should take this opportunity to do something new. Maybe we've been given the chance to realize how far we've gotten from the joy, the peace, the hope, and the promise that we’ve been offered.
Tomorrow we celebrate something that changed life as we knew it. God made a virgin conceive a child who became a King that would give His life to save people who didn't know Him, who didn't even like Him. He came to us knowing that we would never change and move toward Him ourselves. His love made the first move and opened the door for us to step into a kind of joy that shouldn’t be possible. And the amazing thing is that even through all the changes, all the chaos, all the choices we've made, that door is still open and His love is still the same. He is still with us!
That's the gift. That's the message. That's the true meaning of Christmas. Not what you buy someone else or what they give to you. It's not a Christmas tree or twinkling lights. It's not holiday sales and frantically rushing to the store at the last minute. It’s not even festive parties and ugly sweaters. Christmas is a reminder of the greatest gift that will ever be given, and that it was given to all of us.
Don't lose that behind all this other stuff. Don’t allow that to get lost in our quest back to what was once normal. Maybe this year we start a new normal of celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. Maybe we allow ourselves to refocus on what truly matters and finally let the rest of it go. While all the glitter and gold may seem amazing, it can't compare with the love of our Savior and the hope of the promise that He came to fulfill.
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