This just in from our global online tribe: “There are so many things to do in the Christmas season that I am wound up like the toy I just bought my son. HOW CAN I FIND COMFORT IN CHRISTMAS?”
Let’s start with the FOUNDATION of Christmas before we get to COMFORT.
Christmas is about the birth of Christ. The arrival of the prophesied Messiah. The Lord in human flesh. The promise of HOPE for the world.
God uses Christmas to put a spotlight on that hope for others to see and come to Christ themselves through our example.
NOW, TO THE QUESTION’S REFERENCE TO “finding comfort in Christmas.”
My Christmas memories–from being a rambunctious child playing James Bond and leading my mates around the walnut orchards in Northern California to living today along the sun-drenched Southern California coast—are fused into a singular and seamless vignette of comfort. The sights and sounds and smells. The gifts and gatherings and gingerbread houses. The candles and carolers and cookies.
Yes, there is temporary comfort in the trappings of the world’s Christmas—family, food, gifts and fellowship. But the enduring FOUNDATION of Christmas is Christ and the origin of our COMFORT and JOY in and through him.
The enduring COMFORT in Christmas can ONLY be found in Christ and what he has done and is doing for us every day. THAT is what the world needs to see in and through us at Christmas as we depend on him and glorify his name.
We should cherish-and-relish Christ’s comfort in Christmas. But we would be presenting an incomplete and misleading front if we focused on the world’s version of Christmas ahead of GLORIFYING CHRIST—the child and essence of Christmas.
Finally…to the question’s “WOUND UP” reference. Here’s what God said about that through David:
“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” Psalm 46:10-11
I ask God to keep me grounded in him and his sovereignty this Christmas as I thank him for the greatest gift ever given—his Son Jesus Christ.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Have you moved your thoughts this Christmas beyond the world’s version of COMFORT to God’s promises through CHRIST?
“Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11
