Beyond The Porch Swing
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Houses dressed in twinkling lights seem an oxymoron with the checkout lines in the stores.
The phrase from ‘Silent Night’, “all is calm and all is bright” hums in my head as I drive through neighborhoods of homes, dress in twinkling lights. I wonder, is everything as beautiful inside the home as it’s outside claims?
Last weekend, in need of a gift card, I went to Chick-fil-A. In our town, we have a Chick-fil-A right next to Costco, a mega, bulk, buying club. Waiting for my turn in the Drive thru, I observed the Costco’s activity. Their parking lot was packed. People pushed big carts loaded with purchases out the door to their vehicles. Costco also has its own gas station. The fuel lines made me wonder if I missed the notice for a national gas crisis!
Did some of these people live in those twinkling lit homes? Elaborate decorating doesn’t just happen, it takes a ton of work. Work to be able to pay someone to decorate for them as well as work if they do it themselves. Is the stress of appearances ruining their Christmas season?
What about the people who can barely cover their rent? I know how I like to give gifts to my family, and though we don’t over do it, finances get tight in December. For them it’d be even worse. Even feeding extra people for a few days makes the grocery budget go wacky. Why do people jeopardize their finances for the year over Christmas?
The entire view around me reeked of anxiety!
I then had a tiny “out of body” experience ( that might be a bit extreme 
). Surrounded by the hustle, I felt like I was in a bubble. A bubble of peace. What I was seeing wasn’t Christmas. I was seeing people making life very complicated. We people have the great talent of taking something plain and simple, and in our attempt to value it, we glam and glitz it till the intended purpose is hidden. Though beautiful, the original value gets decorated so well it’s lost.
This may seem redundant, but Christmas is Jesus.
No glamor or glitz, yet mind boggling amazing. Christmas is God shouting out; “I love you and I want a relationship with you!”
We often talk about Jesus’s birth in a stable symbolizing His approachability to all people in all life situations. But God is always thinking ahead. He knew our bent. We need a Saviour in every aspect of our life. In this era and culture of excess, we even need a Savior from over doing. Could God intended His birth in a stable as a specific message for us today?
Christmas doesn’t require any thing. Christmas only requires Jesus.
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:11 ESV
Very plain, very dirty, no special foods, maybe no food at all. A regular day that changed history forever, because of Jesus.
Go ahead and decorate, it isn’t wrong. But may every light and ornament we hang, be a reminder of our Amazing Jesus. Jesus, who left His beautiful, comfortable home in heaven, to live and identify with us!
As for the neighborhoods of twinkling lights, let them remind us that the most beautiful of Christmas displays, are only a dim flicker compared with the glory of Immanuel, God who is with us.
May the music filling the stores and our homes be praises to God our Father for the generosity of His Son. His Son who submitted His life as the sacrifice we need to pay atonement for our sins.
And let our words and attitudes be sweet goodies of blessings. Blessings which cause those around us to hunger more for Jesus than any other gift that can ever be given.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
Colossians 3:16 ESV
May you enjoy celebrating the wonders of Jesus and His Peace this Christmas season!
Janet
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