How Do We Approach Christmas?

How Do We Approach Christmas?

Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy and celebration. It is a time when the child in each of us gets released for a few days. We get excited about little things — a holiday scene, the aroma of a freshly cut tree, a note from a friend in a distant place, the echo of a Christmas carol, the blinking of colored lights.

At Christmas time, as in no other time, we indulge ourselves in the tastes of the season. We turn nostalgic about bygone days and recall almost forgotten memories. Generosity increases as we open ourselves to the needs of others.

Most of us go to great lengths to enjoy the Christmas season. But not all. Some still approach Christmas in the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ novel “The Christmas Carol.”

Such people approach Christmas begrudgingly. Christmas means obligation for them. It is a time when an employer “has” to provide gifts to employees; a time when social pressures “force” one to buy some trinket for a spouse or a child or a sibling.

The spirit of Scrooge thinks about how much the gifts cost, about how inconvenient it is to have to purchase a gift. The Scrooge-like spirit resents Christmas and cannot wait for it to be over so life can get back to “normal.” It is a selfish spirit with little room or consideration for others.

For others, Christmas is a time to make amends for the sins of past days. Such people seem to think a brightly colored package can make right all the mistakes of the past.

It is not a change of heart in which they trust. Rather, it is the fact that they offer a gift at all. Somehow, standing there with gift in hand is supposed to make amends for all that has gone before.

In religious language, such a gift is like a sin offering. But the Bible teaches that God does not joy in sacrifices but in a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Sadly, those who bring “sin offerings” to family or friends without a change of heart, find the gifts do not make any difference there either.

Still others treat Christmas as an opportunity to manipulate others. For some, gifts become bribes to coerce people into conforming to the will of the giver.

The season allows others to use guilt as a tool to force people into compliance. Even among Christian families, guilt is a major manipulative factor. Just recall some of the conversations about where to celebrate the holiday to see how guilt is often used.

How different these actions are from the approach to Christmas the season is intended to provide. Christmas is supposed to be a time to express the importance of relationships. The gifts and cards and kindnesses are supposed to reinforce the important relationships nurtured through past months and years.

Christmas is supposed to be like the exclamation point at the end of a sentence. It emphasizes the meaning of the relationship. It is an expression of joy and excitement.

The way one approaches Christmas also tells much about the way one approaches God.

If one begrudges Christmas, it is likely that one approaches God begrudgingly. One may even resent God. Such a person may give God a “tip of the hat” at Christmas time, but otherwise that individual would like God to leave him alone and he is content to leave God alone.

Some see attending Christmas services like making a sin offering to God. Coming to church is supposed to make everything right. But, as said above, God looks on the inside at the heart, not on the outside. Outward gifts without inward change accomplish little.

Some even believe they can manipulate God.  Such people reason that if they do enough right things, they will place God in their debt. God will have to do what they want Him to do. Such reasoning leads some people to do extravagant things but it does not succeed in putting God in their debt.

God alone is God and our greatest deeds are but rags in His sight. We cannot earn God’s favor by our actions.

What God asks is that we love Him with heart and soul and mind and strength. That is possible only when one accepts Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Through faith in Christ, we put the exclamation point at the end of the sentence about our relationship to God. It is joy and excitement.

How we approach God makes a difference in how we enjoy our relationship with Him just as how we approach Christmas makes a difference in how we enjoy the holiday season.