Do You Need to Recapture the Wonder of Christmas?
They call it the most wonderful time of year, but for many, I have a feeling it’s not. We string lights and add color, and with pretty things and presents under the tree, we try to add a little joy to our separate worlds. Meanwhile, most days, we’re a mess of emotions and worry and fear and stress. Each day, the world looks a little bleaker, and our LED Christmas lights can only shine so bright.
Do you know what we need? We need to recapture the wonder of Christmas. In these last days, before the table overflows with Christmas dinner and we’ve got three trash bags full of wrapping paper in the garage, there’s still time.
We CAN recapture the wonder of Christmas and give our souls a deep drink of what we’re really craving. But it isn’t going to happen by watching our favorite holiday movies or carrying on family traditions or baking delicious cookies, or listening to all the various renditions of Christmas carols we want. That deep drink we need—the reset our soulful pallets desire—has nothing to do with cookies and carols but everything to do with Christ.
He is the wonder of Christmas. He is the reason we celebrate.
Christmas isn’t just about the birth of a baby; it’s about the birth of a Savior. It’s the fulfillment of a promise God made to two broken-hearted people in a garden after a catastrophic decision forced the trajectory of humanity hell-bound. It’s the fulfillment of a promise God never went back on even as the world turned against Him.
Though generations have blasphemed the name of God (and still do to this day), the thread of hope and blessing sealed in the promise of a Redeemer persisted in parallel beside the unfaithfulness of man. Why? So that God could shower His image-bearers with compassion instead of the condemnation we actually deserve.
Behold the wonder of Christmas, my friend.
At just the right moment in history, in the unsuspecting town of Bethlehem, with only heavenly fanfare and the awe of a few shepherds, divinity perfectly coupled with humanity at the first cries of a miraculous infant.
Just think about it for a moment. The very one who breathed Adam into existence and placed the stars in the sky and measured the oceans and set this world in motion—the one we know as Christ the Lord—buried himself in the womb of a woman so he could bury himself in a tomb for our sin.
For what? A creation that didn’t recognize him? A people who spit in His face and spurn His existence? Yes, for that. The Lord knew what kind of reception He would get. He knew the road of disdain and disrespect that spanned before Him. He knew the level of hatred that would crush Him and the intense suffering that would seize Him. And yet, Jesus Christ is the God who came anyway.
Behold the wonder of Christmas, my friend.
Though the years fall like raindrops, swift and sometimes fierce, evaporating one into another, our God is still the same wonderful God He’s always been. So let me tell you what Christmas really is? It’s a celebration of the God who doesn’t forget. The God who never went back on His Word or changed His mind or gave up—the God who always does what He says.
Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Isaiah spoke the following words to a broken, battered, and barely-breathing Israel.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David” (Isaiah 9:6-7).
And then, one day, it happened. The Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God and Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace whose reign is forever happened upon this earth snuggled in His mother’s arms.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (Matt. 1:21).
Just like that, God was with us. Wrapped in swaddling and completely dependent on human hands, He counted us as more significant than himself.
Behold the wonder of Christmas, my friend.
I don’t ever want to get over this story. I don’t ever want to find it boring. And yet, somewhere along the way, I think it’s gotten lost deep in the recesses of garland, cast behind something many like to call the magic of Christmas. But it’s not the magic of Christmas that gives us joy; it’s the message of Christmas.
“I have good news,” declared the angel of the Lord on a hillside nearby. “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
Do you know what Christmas is? It’s the ground-zero moment our favorite Old Testament saints longed to see and the beginning of our Christianity. It isn’t just a nice story to read while snuggled close to a crackling fire with a cup of hot cocoa in hand; it’s the path of redemption for a broken world.
Your Savior is here! Your Savior has come! Your Savior has promised to save you.
“For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
None.
“I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11). And again, a few verses later, “There is no god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me” (Isaiah 45:21b). Christ alone came and conquered. And make no mistake, He will come again. This, this is the light that shines in the wee hours of Christmas morning and every day thereafter.
Behold the wonder of Christmas, my friend.
Perhaps this year hasn’t held much revelry for you. Perhaps the magic of Christmas feels buried under the weight of an unknown future or the loss of a loved one or family struggles. If so, I invite you to peek past the fading magic to the faithful message and recapture the wonder of Christmas.
Once, we had no hope, but now there is hope. Once, we had no future, but now we have a future. There is a peace that surpasses understanding. There is forgiveness and reconciliation with God. There is grace and glory and the promise of an incredible future all because of Christmas—all because of Christ.
If your Christmas looks a little bluer than green this year, if the cookies are still leaving you a little dissatisfied, if this weary world is growing a little too loud, look beyond the shadows to the light of Christ, beloved of God. He is there, and He is on the throne. He is patient and kind and sovereign and dawned in eternal glory.
Fall on your knees and worship Him. Lift your eyes and hands and hearts to the author of Christmas and let your soul embark on a journey of joy. Don’t listen to the world; listen to Jesus. Open His Word and get lost in the blessing instead of the magic. It’s not the magic that will get us through anyway—it’s the message of Christ that gives us a reason to sing.
Once upon a time, in a heaven not far away, the perfect Son of God, the Ancient of Days, the Creator of life, the King of kings, disrobed to redeem you.
Through all the muck and mud, we still have much to celebrate if we’d lift our eyes from the various distractions to behold the true meaning of this holiday season.
Behold the wonder of Christmas, my friend.
May our gracious God and Savior bless you and keep you,
Stacey
