I guess I need to stop being amazed at how quickly the years are spinning by, but it’s hard to believe it’s almost Christmas already. Years ago, my dad said some-thing like, “when I was a kid, Christmas seemed to come only once every four years; now it comes four times a year.” Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded a song called “Circle Game” that describes the life of a boy growing into a teenager, then a young man, and the seasons and years are referred to as circles. In one verse, we hear:
“Thoughts of ‘when you’re older’ must appease him; and promises of ‘someday’ fill his dreams.”
The next verse says:
“Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now, cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town; and they tell him, ‘take your time; it won’t be long now, til you drag your feet to slow the circles down.'”
That line always struck me. So many times in childhood we long to be older, wait-ing to be old enough to play a sport, drive a car, move out, marry, travel, etc.; and time seemed to go so SLOW!
And now? Christmas again already. Here’s the thing though; often, the com-pressed sense of time is a bummer. Summer’s already over, I’m another year old-er, etc. But Christmas never gets old, never gets routine. It’s too big, too beautiful. We must be careful to guard against falling into any kind of rut that soils our view of Christmas. Do you dread the financial aspect of Christmas? Buying all those gifts and decorations? Don’t do it! Find simpler ways to celebrate. Some things, like certain gatherings, are probably unavoidable. It’s a busy, busy season for sure. But find a time, or times, to really ponder what all this is about.
We are under no scriptural obligation to celebrate the Christmas holiday. But oh my, is it ever an event worth celebrating! God is on record as having said, long before Christ was born, that He would “be with” His people. But Emmanu-el, God With Us, is beyond that. What we celebrate is God becoming one of us. Taking on flesh. I love the way Bryan Duncan puts it in one of my favorite contemporary Christmas songs: “He wrapped His Love in flesh and blood, and took the form of man.” Chris Rice sings, in his song welcoming Christ to our world: “Wrap our injured flesh around You; breathe our air and walk our sod.” To have God with us… . in the flesh! Astounding! And yet …
Jesus Himself said there was something better. In John 16:5-7, Jesus says, “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
God for us is good. God with us is better. God with us as one of us is even better. But because the Holy Spirit is here, we have the best: God IN us! Be-cause He is in us, there is nothing we cannot do. Everything God has called us to be and do, He has empowered us to do through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But that is only possible because of the resurrection. Which was neces-sary because He died. Which happened 33 years after this whole thing started. Which is what we celebrate this month. As Don Francisco put it, “When once, for all eternity, God became a man.”
With you in Christ,
