Early in life I learned that there is something special about Christmas. As a child I often lay on the floor under the tree, looking up through the lights, entranced. Once, in my early teens, I stayed by the tree, reading, after the rest of the family went to bed. The temperature dropped outside, and a light snow began to fall. Indoors, the household drifted deeper into sleep, and outdoors, the night drifted deeper into silence and cold, with softly falling snow. The light of the tree lit the room: I was warm in heart, surrounded by light and smell of Christmastide. Sometime in the night, I looked out the frosted window, and something indefinable drew me outside – the beauty of the glistening snow, the beckoning stillness. I put on shoes and coat and walked out the front door, onto the porch. The snow crunched underfoot with that squeaky, tell-tale sound of deepening cold, and the light of the streetlight sparkled blue-white on the snow, a halo of moving light, as tiny crystals of snow drifted down – not flakes, but merest crystals, each forming diamonds in the night, falling through the light. The silence and wonder washed over me, and I stood still in the stillness and beauty of the Christmas light. A moment of pure beauty – and then, suddenly, a moment of pure love: Holy Love seemed to flow from the wonder around me, and the Presence of God wrapped around me. I don’t know how long I stood there, transported. Somehow, I wasn’t cold, “lost in wonder, love and grace.” I realized, even imperfectly, that I had encountered the transcendent meaning of Christmas that night – a brief taste of divine grace.

I’ve come to believe that Christmas celebration is a time of divine favor. God is always at work, and ever present, in all seasons of nature and human life, but there is something about the Season when the name of Christ is on hundreds of thousands of lips, simultaneously. When He is lifted up, the Spirit draws humans to God. However, I also believe that we short sell the offered glory of the Season for far less than God intends. A special grace covers the land, but we often twist it in family idolatry and replacement mythmaking: family and sentimentality replace divine center for us, and then we create foolish tales of reindeer and elves, and a hundred other fables, filling the minds of children with empty sugarplums whenever the Light of the world draws near. Parents trade the real, life-changing glory of the Season for a few trinkets that fade when the Christmas lights come down, and the wrapping paper is crinkled up and thrown away. Eternal light draws near, and humans turn away to broken lights of their own making. Truly, earthlings love darkness rather than light.

Consider the story of a five-year old boy who died in the arms of a storefront Santa. The boy’s last wish was to talk to Santa, so this man dressed up as Santa, and visited him in the hospital. The boy reached out and cried, “Help me, Santa!” He inquired as to how he would be accepted on the other side. The Santa-impersonator said, “Just tell them that you’re Santa’s number one elf and they’ll let you in.” The boy said, “Okay!” and held onto Santa and died in his arms: Tragic and heart-rending. What if Santa had said, “Son, I can’t help you, but I work for the One who can. His name is Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God: He too became a child, meek and lowly, that He might bear your sins and mine, and present us faultless to God. Call out to Him, and He will help you and carry you to God. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and HE LOVES YOU.” Eternal life is a gift – a gift of the REAL Christmas!

Friends, the meaning of this Season is too Holy, too laden with Life, for us to pass it by in trinkets, idolatries, and replacement myths. May we allow God center place in our hearts, and then lead our families in this eternal Light. Like this, it will be a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Amen.