I love Christmas! Ask Will, I love everything about the season…the decorations, the music, the cookies. And if I had my way, it would be Christmas every day of the year.
Because there’s just something about Christmas, especially the joy it brings. For me, there’s a magical moment on Christmas Eve, when the music fills the air and the candles are lit, that I fully believe that God has indeed come to be with us.
The fancy word is “incarnation” – the belief that Jesus is God in the flesh. Every Christmas we proclaim that God came down, that God became flesh, that God is Emmanuel, which means God with us. When paraphrasing John 1, Eugene Peterson puts it this way, Jesus “moved into the neighborhood.”
What we’re saying is that Jesus is made of all the same stuff that we are. God, who could be anything, who could be anyone, chose to be born into this world just like you and me. And that’s important because it means that God understands what it’s like to be human, to be one of us. And it means that God stops at nothing to claim as God’s own.
That’s why Christmas is so full of joy, because we believe again that God is coming to be with us – indeed that God is with us.
But then, just as quickly as it started, it’s over. In a matter of days, it’s all gone away. We box Christmas up and pack it away for another year. Sure, it makes sense on a calendar, December 25 comes and goes.
But God doesn’t stop being with us when the decorations are taken down or when the sales are over of when the Christmas carols stop. God continues to be with us all the time.
Because God is still Emmanuel. God is still with us. God is with us now and God will continue to be with us in whatever is next. So, it must be Christmas time – not only in December and not only in July. But 365 days of the year.
It’s Christmas all the time! If only Will would let me keep the tree up 365 days of the year.
Grace and peace, Kimmy