Beyond Ready for Christmas…

Is it just me, or have you noticed everyone seems eager for Christmas to come? I’m not talking about the retailer who began to display Christmas décor after Labor Day.   I’m talking about normal folks. The people I talked with before Thanksgiving were talking about Christmas. I saw houses decorated with outdoor lights the first week of November. 

It even happened at our house. We are normally not early decorators. We might get the stuff down from the attic the Monday before Thanksgiving, but we’ve never put up the decorations until the first week of December. One year life was so full we didn’t decorate until two weeks before Christmas.

But this year, we caught the early decorating bug. We got all three trees up before Thanksgiving. We decorated two during the Florida- Florida State game (and yes, though I am a Gator fan, FSU was robbed). We even ordered the decorations we needed the weekend before Thanksgiving. That was a real change from our normal panicked runs to the store to sort through the leftovers. 

Our shopping is not done, but we are ahead of our normal pace (The normal pace is: “Yes, we will pay extra for next-day shipping on Christmas Eve.”). We spoke with the children and agreed not to go over the top with gift-giving this year. I was surprised when everyone agreed.

There is a different feeling in the stores. My wife was in a store, and she said everyone seemed to be in a good mood. The children were laughing; no one was crying. Older women were greeting each other with “Merry Christmas!” as their electric carts passed each other. 

Why does it seem like everyone is eager for Christmas?

Maybe it has something to do with the situation in the world. The war between Ukraine and Russia goes on and on. It reminds me of the trench warfare of World War I.   Then, there is the war between Hamas and Israel. Their struggle goes back millennia. Israel believes God promised them Palestine. Palestinians believe the land is theirs. In a scenario like this, someone will win, and someone will lose. The conflict makes us weary. Even though Evangelicals support Israel, can anyone be comfortable with the civilian casualties of this conflict? There are no simple answers to this conflict.

I was at a meeting this week when someone seated near me said, “I dread 2024.”  When I asked, “Why?” they responded with, “The election. For the next eleven months, I will be bombarded with negative messages about candidates. Sometimes, I want to tell all those politicians to act like grown-ups and stop snipping at each other like kids on the playground.”  I muttered “Amen” under my breath. Someone else told me, “I didn’t like either of these choices in 2020. I like them less in 2024. Can’t we do better?” 

I find myself bracing for political discussions I don’t want to get involved in. I know there will be people who will want me to declare for the candidate they support. I’ve never endorsed a candidate, and I am not starting now. But I can sense people dividing into “Us” and “Them.”

Maybe these are a few reasons why people are beyond ready for Christmas. I’m not sure everyone is looking for a Norman Rockwell scene with a cozy fire, a perfect tree, and a put-together family. Maybe there is a deeper longing for peace strong enough for us to stay calm even if the world is going crazy.

The world was pretty crazy when Jesus was born. King Herod probably had a borderline/narcissistic personality disorder. Roman armies were at war with Celtic tribes in England. Taxes were heavy, in some places up to 70% of a person’s income. Poor people felt oppressed. Justice was bought and sold. 

Maybe the people in Jesus’ time were ready for Christmas, too, but they didn’t know what to call it. Some hoped for a Messiah; others hoped for a more benevolent ruler. But they felt the hole in their hearts and the longing in their souls for something different. They did not know the birth of a baby in a forgotten village would bring the hope they needed, the transformation they longed for.

Inside every one of us, there is a longing for the one who will guide us, who will bring peace, and who does not change, no matter who wins the election. That longing of your soul is the longing for Jesus, the longing for our Savior.

Sometime in the Eighth or Ninth century AD, Christian monks looked at their world and saw war after war. Political intrigue was the rule of the day, even in the offices of the church. They, too, had a longing in their souls. At Christmas time, they began to sing:
            “O Come, O come Emmanuel.  And ransom captive Israel.

            That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.

            Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel

            Shall come to thee, O Israel.”

The world is beyond ready for a Savior. The good news is he is here.