Reclaiming Christ in Christmas

     I love Christmas.  The smells, the songs, the festivities.  The world seems right when "Chestnuts are Roasting on An Open Fire" or I'm "Walking In A Winter Wonderland".  But, in recent years my  Christmas has  delight been increasingly consumed by anxiety.  This year I felt the panic rising the day after Halloween, when I noticed Christmas banners hung at the local shopping center and the Halloween candy display at the grocery store, magically replaced overnight by Christmas decor and baking supplies.  My family began asking for gift lists for my 5 kids and I realized that I likewise should be collecting gift lists from my nine nieces and nephews, as well as for my parents and siblings.   Anxiety continued rising as my husband and I had one of those sobering "budget summits" in which I realized that I would have to be extra "creative" and frugal in shopping this year.  And then as I looked  at my chronically cluttered house, I could not imagine hauling out decorations and creating "the Christmas magic".  Anxiety was beginning to give way to panic. . . and it was only mid-November!
       Thankfully, God threw me a rescue line in the form of a church event.  The women in our church gather every year to make Christmas wreaths and this year we had decided to add Christmas wreaths into the mix.  I was asked to give a short talk on celebrating Christmas through Advent.  In God's infinitely creative way, He used this talk to put a megaphone to my soul and remind me that what was causing me anxiety was not Christmas.  It was consumerism; it was commercialism; it was people-pleasing.  And all of this was a far cry from the intent of Christmas: the celebration of God's unmerited grace in sending Jesus to be born into our world and rescue us from our own darkness, rebellion and brokenness. 
      Christmas is an opportunity to deeply engage with one of the most pivotal realities of the Christmas faith:  Jesus, Son of God, was really born into this world.   To my shame, I often acknowledge this fact with an excitement equivalent to saying, "Old Navy is having 40% off their outwear today."  What does it say about me that the reality of Jesus' human birth seems so "ho-hum"?  Could it be because the enemy of our soul has enacted a deliberate campaign to keep me so busy and distracted that  Jesus stays safely on the margins of my life?  In one of life's great ironies, the time of year we are given to reflect deeply on Christ's birth, has become one of the busiest, preoccupying and stressful times of year. 
      This blogsite is an effort to take back Christmas and return Jesus to His rightful focus in my life.  Christmas was originally conceived as a holiday that would supplant the pagan Winter Solstice.  Advent was the four weeks of preparing one's heart to worship Jesus and revel in His birth.  This year I am asking God for an Advent journey that would fill my heart with expectancy, awe and worship.  I am asking God to take consumerism to the margins of my life and reclaim Christ as the center of my Christmas celebration.
     Every Sunday you will find a devotion that focuses on one of the five candles of the Advent wreath:.  I have asked other friends to add their own reflective words during the week.  May God slow your pace this Christmas and bless you with the gift of His presence.  May your heart be filled with wonder and gratitude at the mystery of Jesus becoming a child and coming into the world for the love of YOU.