It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go.
Actually, not really for me. I live in Florida, and it was eighty degrees last week. We don’t get snow here, and baby, it’s cold outside looks like about sixty. But Santa does make an appearance on the beach from time to time, and people are generally in a festive mood. At least the weather does cool down a little bit in the “winter.” A few years ago, we lived in New Zealand. Christmas was right in the middle of summer. “Jingle Bells” doesn’t hit as hard when you’re in shorts and a T-shirt. Nevertheless, there are certain indicators that let us know Christmas is right around the corner.
We have expectations for Christmas. We expect stores to start playing Christmas music, people to decorate their homes with lights, and kids to start talking about the presents they want to see under the tree. We make plans for the relatives to come over, and many people get to take some time off work for the holidays. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
But what did Christmas look like in the beginning? Not the Genesis beginning, but the beginning of Christmas. You know ,,, the time when Jesus was born? In Matthew Chapter One, we have some great insight into the events leading up to Christmas. Joseph and Mary are going to get married, the angel Gabriel announces the pregnancy (yikes!), and the couple takes a step of faith to follow God’s command. Then Jesus is born! The original Christmas.
I’d like to give you five takeaways from Matthew Chapter One about what Christmas looks like. This will help us prepare our hearts spiritually as we rush headlong into this holiday season.
Christmas looks like unexpected surprises.
Mary and Joseph were minding their own business, doing what every other Jewish family was doing, and returning home for the census. And then … SURPRISE! The powerful angel Gabriel appears — surprise! He tells Mary she is pregnant — surprise! Her child is going to be the savior of the world and is the Son of The Most High — surprise!
Now, I’ve had a few surprises in my life but nothing compared to that.
When Lynne and I had been married just over a year, she visited me at the job site I was working at. I was high up on an extension ladder, working on the top corner of the house. She shouted up at me, “I’m pregnant!” I was already slightly off balance, and that wonderful surprise nearly cost me my life. Ladies, if your man is twenty feet up on an extension ladder, wait until he gets down to share the good news. Thankfully, I survived, and now we have a twenty-four-year-old son who’s starting his own family.
It’s helpful to remember that surprises to us aren’t surprises to God. He’s in control of our surprises! Find comfort in this verse from Proverbs: “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). Or even better, “The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?”[1]
Christmas looks like disappointing problems.
Joseph was a good man. He was going to put Mary away privately so she wouldn’t be hurt by the scandal of having a child out of wedlock. Talk about problems. How could this be covered up? What would they do with their lives now? It seemed hopeless. Thankfully, Christmas is all about hope! God turned a problem into a promise, and Mary received the greatest blessing a woman could have.[2]
This Christmas season, we need to remember that not everyone is having a merry Christmas. Problems happen, and difficulties don’t wait for us to get through the holidays before they start hammering us. When we interact with friends and family this Christmas, remember that they may not all be as excited as we are. Elvis said it best as he was thinking about Christmas without his sweetheart: “You’ll be doing alright / With your Christmas of white / But I’ll have a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas.”
Christmas looks like new opportunities.
When Gabriel told this young couple that they were going to be the parents of Immanuel, their lives changed forever. Never in a million years could they’ve planned this. There was no way they could’ve come up with a strategy to make this happen. It was the opportunity of a lifetime — from God — and they accepted it obediently. Of course, there was fear, and an awful lot of change, but when God is orchestrating events, His opportunities can make our lives dramatically better. I think what I like most about this “opportunity” is that they didn’t try to force it, make it happen, or manipulate God’s will. It just fell in their lap, and they accepted. They weren’t like the little boy who tried to bargain with God for Christmas presents. In a pre-Christmas letter to God, he wrote, “I’ve been good for six months,” but after thinking about it, he crossed it out and wrote “three months.” Then, “two weeks.” Finally, he gave up, went to the nativity scene, took the figure of Mary, wrapped it in a cloth, and hid it. He returned to his letter: “Dear God, if you ever want to see your mother again, you better get me those presents!”
Christmas looks like special visitors.
“You surprised to see us, Clark?”
“Oh, Eddie … If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am now.”[3]
We all love the holidays because we get to see friends and family and spend time with the ones we love. This year, my daughter Liana flew home early from Bible College to surprise my parents, who were coming from New Mexico. What a happy visitation! Now, I know that some people (none of us of course) have family they’d prefer not to visit, or at least not stay too long. Thankfully, unlike cousin Eddie or some of our own dear family members, God has visited us and filled our hearts with “joy to the world!”
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” – Matthew 1:23
Christmas looks like Jesus.
With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, let this serve as a reminder that Jesus is the reason for the season! When life surprises you with new opportunities, use those to honor Jesus. When you buy those gifts for the unexpected visitors, remember the wonderful gift that God has given us in Jesus. When you walk into the grocery store to pick up the pumpkin pie and hear “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” playing on the PA, lift your heart in worship to Jesus. When you hang up your Christmas lights, may your heart be merry and bright because Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is the reason for the season, and HE is what Christmas looks like.
Footnotes
[1] Proverbs 20:24 (NLT) — I love the translation of this verse. It makes it sound so good, like we’re abandoning all stress and worry because God is in control. We don’t have to have it all figured out!
[2] Luke 1:42 (NKJV) — Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
[3] Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, reacting to his Cousin Eddie (played by Randy Quaid) showing up unexpectedly at Christmas in the movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” 1989.
