Pentatonix does a song called That’s
Christmas to me. It has a line in it
that goes, “the only gift I’ll ever need is the joy of family.” It made me think.
There has got to be more to Christmas than
food and presents, I think we all know that.
But there needs to be more to Christmas than family too. If our joy at Christmas time comes from the
food, the presents, even the family – then what happens when we don’t have
those things? What happens when we can’t
have the treats we want, our budget doesn’t stretch to provide the gifts we
think we need, or if our family is absent, by death, by distance, or by
choice?
If our joy in the Christmas season comes
through these things, we WILL be disappointed.
There has to be something bigger than stuff, or people, to provide
lasting joy – because stuff and people, sadly, don’t last.
The only way we can experience deep joy
this Christmas, and every Christmas, is to seek out and embrace the truth of
the first Christmas – the birth of a savior, who is Christ the Lord. When we embrace the truth of Christmas, we can
go without all the “stuff” of Christmas, and yet be totally satisfied. We can truly know the JOY of Christmas every
day, all year round, despite the inevitability of pain and suffering.
