Christmas. Shopping. Music. Lights. Crowds. Traffic. Parties. Baking. Eating…lots of eating! Few of us can escape the hustle and bustle of the Christmas Holiday season. Many of us have come to accept the annual craziness that precedes Christmas Day. Maybe, we even (secretly) enjoy it! I confess that I do! I start listening to Christmas music on Thanksgiving Day…I just can’t wait any longer! I LOVE Christmas!
Remember when “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” became a popular phrase? There were T-shirts, coffee mugs and bumper stickers everywhere reminding us that Christmas is more than the commercial hullaballoo that it had become. And yes, even that became a profitable endeavor for manufacturing and retailers during the Christmas season! I still believe it was a valiant effort to bring us some pause. It did cause some of us to turn our focus from the busyness of our commercialized Christmas to JESUS…the true meaning of Christmas.
I don’t see many of these bumper stickers anymore. And not much has changed since the phrase was first coined. Perhaps your Christmas season is even crazier than ever! If you are like me, you may need a little help turning your focus to Jesus amid your bustling Christmas activities. I recently read an article on the topic of how to make Jesus your focus this Christmas. A few suggestions are:
- Read the Christmas story with your family (Luke 1 and 2)
- Take your family to a special event celebrating Christmas
- Adopt a child or family for Christmas
- Attend regular church services during Advent
As I was journaling the other day trying to focus on “Jesus” in my Christmas, God gave me John 1:1. I honestly had never thought of John 1:1 as a “Christmas” passage, but I dug in and found a Christmas story here! The Bible says in John 1:1-4, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
This is actually one of my favorite scriptures because it reveals WHO Christ IS. First, the reference of time “in the beginning” (Gr. Ev arche) means “at the starting point”. John begins his gospel at the starting point, mirroring Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Jesus is called the WORD (Gr. Logos), which means “divine utterance or expression of a thought”. So, Jesus is the “divine utterance” of the Father and was in the beginning with God, and in fact, IS God! That all things were made through Him is further revelation that Jesus and his Father, God, is who in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth. And not only that, but without Him nothing was made! As Creator, in Him is life itself…and his life is the LIGHT of all mankind!
Now that’s the reason we celebrate the birth of Jesus! When he came down from His heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father, He left it all behind and became one of us for one reason. For LOVE. Because of LOVE. John says later in his gospel,“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” He came to redeem all of mankind. He paid the necessary price with His life, so we would have eternal life in Him! “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
Dear Lord,
Thank you for the gift of your love to the world. Thank you for making a way for us to be restored to life in You. Thank you for sending Your Son to be born, a baby in a humble manger, divinely God and yet human, like us. Thank you for creating LIFE, sustaining LIFE and redeeming us to eternal LIFE. Help us to focus on you in our Christmas season and all the days of our life.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen