Ask anyone close to me and they will let you know that Christmas is my favourite season/holiday/festivity, whatever you may call it. It is a day in which the entire world comes together to celebrate a Man I haven’t loved my whole life yet has loved me. Has loved and continues to love, us all. So much so, that for His short period on earth He never got to celebrate Himself but instead endured the complete opposite of celebration in order to isolate this very day out of our passing years whereby we can be immersed in joy, love and gift-giving. The goodness of God summed up in one sentence.
And yes, though it is likely that He wasn’t born on December 25th, we have this allocated day to honour His emergence into our very own stratosphere, a day immersed in lights and glitz and glamour, although His arrival and departure didn’t end in this same manner. He died a death that succumbed His supernatural self to ridicule so we could drink mulled wine, tear apart succulent turkeys, nurse our first ever American girl doll and receive that long-awaited kiss under the mistletoe. But, this is the vain side of things, reader. His coming opened the door for much more than this explosion of green, red and gold sprawling all over our parlours and settees.
I want to take a moment to remember Mary in this season. God chose a young virgin woman to carry out something remarkable. A young woman gave birth to a King -The King of Kings. A young woman did this with a man she wasn’t necessarily in love with but trusted wholeheartedly to carry out God’s command. Many may think she had it breezy, because she was giving birth to God’s son He would’ve been an angel child in terms of delivery! All in all, I am using Mary’s character to ask ourselves, how can we put aside emotions and feelings and comfort to do the will of God? We have to keep in mind that no form of suffering is in vain.
Sometimes, I think the only thing that must’ve kept Jesus going were times when, through his Godly provision, He would see me at age 8 screaming in elation at receiving my first ever ZooZoo pet, or at 16 when I was finally of age to join my siblings Secret Santa ritual and cried witnessing the overwhelming love we all had for each other bursting through thoughtful and extravagant gifts. And even now, writing this message of festivity and celebration to you all, all in His beautiful name. He told Himself, He had to do it because then we would get to do this. Carol, and eat, and rest and pray and reunite. I tell you again, reader, you wouldn’t have your baubles without Bethlehem.
Christmas can be a time for us also to give birth to something along with Mary and Joseph. We can turn back to the Lord (which I always encourage), we can love others as we love ourselves, we can give to those who are in need. There is now a time for us to give rise to a new way of living. And though it started in a manger, it can continue in your living room, dorm or business. A restorative/redemptive era can be yours every December 25. Because when we stop waiting for January 1st, we get a head-start on what it is we want to achieve in life and not just the next 365 days as programmed by this easily satiated culture. Jesus lets you think bigger.
So, just as the ‘mas’ stands for mass, I hope we can continue to gather together in celebration of a God who celebrates us everyday, in a lot of ways, but the greatest being life and death. And then life again.
Merry Christmas. To you all.
Sarah J.
See you in 2024! Happy New Year in Advance xxx