I don't know about you, but I love Christmas. It has always been
one of my favorite times of the year. However, over the past few years it seems
to have lost some of its luster to me. It's not that I don't like Christmas
anymore, I love Christmas all the same. There is just something that
disappoints me about the Christmas season. We call it the season of giving and
we use it as a reason to serve and give more than we do. We call it a family
holiday because we gather together and do so much more with our families during
this season. We watch Christmas movies, read the story of Christmas together, decorate
together and even sing Christmas carols in the car together. These are all
great and fantastic things and they are part of what makes the Christmas season
so fun for me. What saddens me is that after all is said and done, we pack up
the decorations and call it quits on Christmas until next year. We get back to
our crazy schedules and our solo lives. Suddenly, all of the giving and service
that we were willing to do disappears. There is not as much time for family and
we stop reading together and celebrating what Christ has done for us together.
We justify this by saying that the
Christmas season is a time to go "above and beyond" in those areas,
but isn't that what Christ came here to call us to? Wasn't part of the reason
He came here to call us to a higher purpose, to a life of "above and
beyond"? So why do we confine it to a season? I agree that the Christmas
season and the celebration of the birth of our Savior should be celebrated with
family time and Bible reading, giving and serving, but shouldn't we be doing
that year-round? The celebration of Christmas is not a time for us to pull out
our best and brightest attitudes and hearts. It's not a time for us to
"get our serving in" or "be better because it's Christmas".
We are called to more than just a season of better. We are called to a lifetime
of adoration of what our Savior has done for us and a lifetime of service
because of His sacrifice.
As we celebrate our Savior's birth this
Christmas, let's not forget that His birth and sacrifice are something to be
celebrated year round. By all means, let's pull out the decorations and the
Christmas carols, the feasts and the celebrations. Let's serve one another for
the Kingdom of God and give to others. But let's not stop when Christmas has
come and gone. Let's continue that kind of servant’s heart year round. Let's
make the celebration of our Savior more than just a season. Let's make it a
lifetime.
