What a slow-fast year this has been. It’s so hard to believe that Christmas is just two days away. Wow, what a year?!? Christmas is looking a little different for us this year, isn’t it? For many of us, our Christmas preparations look very different than in years past. In order to be safe, much of our shopping has been done on line. We’re not in stores touching, feeling, squeezing trying to find just the right gift. Especially not without Christmas scented hand sanitizer and a Christmas mask on. This may be the year, because of logistics, we’re lucky there are gifts under the tree, if there’s a tree. This year we hesitate to bake and deliver Christmas cheer. There aren’t the usual festivities that accompany the season – Christmas parties, Christmas programs, singing choirs of angels. Celebrations with friends and families just look different this year. But, there will be celebrations.
I know I’m not the only one lamenting the changes around our Christmas celebrations this year. But, as I bemoan the events of 2020 and all the changes, the differences this year has brought, I’m reminded of something that never changes…Jesus was born…Jesus died…Jesus rose from the dead…Jesus will come again. That’s the Truth we must hold on to.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
We have learned this year that some things we thought were really important just aren’t. Life has been put in perspective for us in many ways. Just as we believers know that 2020 would have been a whole lot more difficult without Jesus, we also know that Christmas is pointless without Jesus. Without Jesus, Christmas is just like every other holiday that we pack into our neat plastic storage containers, secure the lids, and put in the basement or attic. Those containers are completely lifeless, completely contained, until next Christmas. Without Jesus, Christmas has no significance. It is just another day that has no hope of a future.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:10
We need a Savior, and on Christmas Day that’s what we celebrate. Let’s remember what the day is really all about — the birth of our Savior, the Light of the World, the Hope of All Nations, Christ the Lord! When we’re missing the traditions of Christmas’s past and celebrating in different places with different faces seated around our tables on Christmas Day, let’s keep in mind that it’s more important who is seated at the Lord’s table, than our own. His table is set for all eternity.
Here on Mount Zion the LORD Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world—a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine. Here he will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations. The Sovereign LORD will destroy death forever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone’s eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The LORD himself has spoken.
When it happens, everyone will say, “He is our God! We have put our trust in him, and he has rescued us. He is the LORD! We have put our trust in him, and now we are happy and joyful because he has saved us.”
Isaiah 25:6-9
Christ has come! Christ has died! Christ will come again! Something we definitely can count on in uncertain times. He is the real Reason for all Seasons.