Christmas is Simple

The other day, somebody told me that they weren't feeling the Christmas spirit because things have been "complicated" this year. I don't know why, and I'm not sure they did, either. Something about being busy, maybe a money issue, I don't know. I replied with, "Christmas isn't complicated. It's only complicated if you make it complicated." And I firmly believe that.

They say the holidays are can be stressful. I can see why they would say that, even though I don't agree with it. Maybe it's because I absolutely love Christmas and everything about it. Maybe because I'm generally a pretty relaxed person and I don't get stressed very often. Maybe it's something else, which I'll get to in a second. I just don't think that Christmas is very complicated.

Why exactly is it that people get stressed during the holidays, anyway? The weather, perhaps. Maybe you work in retail, and your job gets busier during Christmas. More likely, there's the stress of travel, or dealing with relatives. And then there's the biggest reason, the presents. You have to go out your way to get gifts for your kids or parents or various other friends and relatives. If you don't like to shop, this certainly adds a layer of annoyance to it all. You have to make the time to do this, and it's not like you can just magic the money into existence. In this economy, maybe you can't quite afford to go wild with Christmas gifts on top of everything else. I know my Christmas present fund ended up being a little tighter than I expected this year.

There is a lot to get stressed about during the holidays if you let it get to you, but just relax. The reason we do these things during Christmas is because we enjoy them. If it gets stressful for you, please try to focus on the positive. Remember the reason we do these things in teh first place. You love your family, isn't that why you want to see them?

But Christmas is even simpler than all of that. Underneath all of this, there really is one thing that Christmas is all about. Beyond the presents, beyond the food, the decorations and the tree. It's that one little, simple thing that makes the whole Christmas season somethign we celebrate to begin with. You might think I'm going to say love, which I am, in a way, but not how you probably think I am. You might think I'm going to say family, and closeness, and joy and all that. That stuff is a major part of Christmas, and they all stem from this, but there is one little thing that makes Christmas everything that it is.

Christmas is more simple than presents and parties and even family. Christmas is very simple, and here's why:

"At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be takn throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for thsi census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go the Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there fromt eh village of Nazareth in Galilee. He too with him Mary, his fiancee, who was now obviously pretnant.

While they were there, teh tiem came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, adn teh radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior -- yes, the Messiah, the Lord -- has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by strips of cloth, lying in a manger.

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast hose of others -- the armies of heaven -- praising God and sayin, "Glory to God in the ighest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased."

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Let's go to Bethlehem! Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lords has told us about."

They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. ANd there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds' story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her hearts and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them."

-Luke 2:1-20, New Living Translation

That's what Christmas is all about. It's about remembering the great and wonderful way that God Himself, the maker of the whole universe, reached down and touched this world with a miracle among miracles. A word made flesh and born onto this earth as virgin, to save us all. His Son, our Lord, Jesus.

One of the most famous Bible verses is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not parish, but have everlasting life." The first part of that, that's Christmas. The verse sums up salvation and the way to eternal life. You might associate it more with Good Friday or the crucifixion, but there's just as much Christmas in that verse as there is anything else.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. The day God gave us his Son. The Son who would grow to make the blind see, to spread truth and faith and love, to die on the cross. To rise again. To connect us all to the God from which sin had separated us. That is the the simple, simple truth of all of Christmas. And it's wonderful.

So when the checking account is getting emptier and you're wondering how you can afford those presents, or when your flight has been delayed for the umpteenth time, or when you remember why you only see that weird uncle once year, remember, that stuff isn't Christmas. It's too complicated for Christmas. Christmas is simple. CHRISTmas is about CHRIST.

You don't have to get me any presents this year. I got the greatest Christmas present ever, about 2000 years before I was even born.