Am I the only one who thinks the stores start decorating for Christmas earlier and earlier every year? It’s only October, but the Christmas trees are already up in the mall. If you’re like me, you love the Christmas season but every year struggle more to find it scratching that old itch of . . . longing? Nostalgia? I’m not sure what, actually. And starting the celebrations earlier each year doesn’t seem to help, but rather it prolongs the sense of discontent.
Unmet Expectations
There’s an inscrutable something embedded in all things accompanying the holidays that warms me and pleases me and, in many ways, excites me—but then these things come and go, and I can’t help but feel a little unfulfilled. All the decorations, the parties, the movies, the gifts, and all the rest just can’t measure up to the expectation.
Every year on December 26 I’m sitting in a room littered with torn wrapping paper, contemplating dirty dishes in the sink and Christmas decor that seems to have outstayed its welcome, and I think, Was that it? And the usual platitudes won’t do. I remember every year that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” I remember to “keep the Christ in Christmas.” Wise men still seek him, after all. But I feel like even these annual religious fortune cookies have gone stale.
Is it possible that Christmas just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?
Is it possible that Christmas just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?
Boxed-Up Baby Jesus
The answer is yes. Of course Christmas isn’t all it’s cracked up to be! How could it be? If eternity is what our hearts are made for, then even a lifetime of annual festivities, no matter how prolonged, can’t come close to soothing the ache inside us.
This is both the beauty and the burden of the Christmas holidays, even for Christians who love them all out of proportion. Christmas is delicious, but it’s really only a hint of a foretaste of the truly blessed hope we have. I think about this every year when we get our nativity set out of storage. There’s something profoundly metaphorical in the act of placing “baby Jesus” in a position of honor in our living room for a month and then putting him back in a dusty box crammed into a cobwebby corner of the garage. The nativity set, like the holiday itself, can only point to what fulfills; it can’t do the fulfilling.
Some people, of course, treat all of Christianity like that nativity. They bring the idea of faith out on special occasions, when the circumstances seem to call for it. The real Jesus doesn’t occupy a central place in their lives. He’s boxed up in the garage or attic, tucked away on a shelf, secured behind the safety glass of the china cabinet, brought out when the pastor comes over and it’s time to be religious. These folks have to walk around with that nagging sense of unfulfillment all year long. Christmas ought to be especially disappointing to them.
Bigger Than We Imagine
On the other hand, however, Christmas isn’t all it’s cracked up to be because it’s actually bigger than we imagine. Christmas is like Aslan’s barn in C. S. Lewis’s The Last Battle—much bigger on the inside than on the outside.
If you don’t care for that fictional analogy, consider this historical one: the real baby Jesus Christ was also the omnipotent, omnipresent Son of God. At his conception by the Holy Spirit, the unborn Jesus in his tiniest state, as a most inconspicuous bud of humanity hidden in the womb of a virgin, was upholding the universe by the word of his power. He may not have looked like much, but he was the great I AM.
Christmas, looked at the right way (maybe squint your eyes and scrunch your mouth a little), can be a resplendent reminder of this. It’s actually bigger than we think. Because it’s the time of year we especially focus on the birth of the Ancient of Days. It’s the time of year we reflect on the “earthing” of the One who has ascended. We might put that plastic baby back in the garage without realizing the Lord it points to is filling all things (Eph. 4:10) and will cover the earth with the knowledge of his glory (Hab. 2:14).
Preparing for Disappointment
Because all this is true, I think it’s time even this fall to begin making peace with the idea of a dissatisfying Christmas. The holidays don’t have to make us feel a certain way for the reality behind the shadows to still be at work in our lives. We don’t have to feel the Spirit to experience his sanctifying presence. We don’t have to see Jesus to trust him and know his love. That baby in the manger was a lot bigger than he looked! Which is why Christmas is a lot bigger than we think.
That baby in the manger was a lot bigger than he looked! Which is why Christmas is a lot bigger than we think.
I don’t know how you’re anticipating the Advent season. Maybe with hope, maybe with dread. But I know even a holiday focused on Christ can’t deliver what Christ himself can. So I encourage you to at the very least think about the season ahead with a resolve to cultivate intimacy with him through his Word and in prayer. A slow and steady beholding of Jesus can expand and deepen our experience of him every day, but especially on Christmas Day.
The Gospel Coalition