Coming into the Christmas Spirit

I am not very good at the Christmas spirit. Most years, I'm insistent that the holiday season does not begin until after the fourth Thursday of November, and I used to hate when stores would unveil their Christmas wreaths and trees right after Halloween. There were even a few years when I never felt that desire for the Christmas season at all (until maybe Christmas Eve or something) and went through the whole of December wondering if I was becoming the Grinch. 

This year, though, I was the one ready for the holidays before October even ended. I snuck in some of my favorites, For King and Country, Pentatonix, and Jess and Gabe’s “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” while nibbling on Halloween candy. A part of me kept thinking that there was no way Thanksgiving was already around the corner, yet at the same time, I was quite content with my mishmash of vibrant leaves and holiday jingles.

I noticed a similar anomaly last year, in that I was READY for the holidays by the time December came around. I’d thought it was just a one-time thing, brought on by COVID, politics, and everything else that bombed our lives in 2020. And maybe it’s just a two-time thing: after all, COVID shows no signs of stopping, and in my personal world, it’s just been one thing after another. As soon as God brings me through one issue (for which I am grateful) another, sometimes bigger, badder, and scarier problem rises to take its place. Often, it’s one I thought I’d already solved, and yet it comes back to bite me when I least expect it.

I don’t spill all that to whine about my worries, but to wonder if that’s why I am so eager, not necessarily for Christmas day, but for the whole of the holidays in general. I’m still shocked that 2021 is almost over, yet at the same time, I want to breathe in the scents, bask in the lights, soak up the Christmas color and décor. I want to savor every second of the joy, the hope, the chaos, the calm, the warmth, the togetherness, and connection. Most of all, I need the remembrance that this, here, the bad times and time on Earth in general, it isn’t all there is. No matter how many problems rise our way, no matter how many endless issues rear their heads and seem unresolvable, no matter how hopeless and helpless I feel at times, the truth sings out: approximately 2,021 years ago, a God who loves me descended into the darkness and the difficulty of this Earth to put forth the footsteps so that I might find my Way back to Him. 2,021 years ago, His sacrificial love took physical form; hope swept in in a way that humans could tangibly hold and mentally take in. Because Jesus came and Jesus saves, I know that no matter what happens next, God With Us is with me and He has my rescue plan all ready. Because Jesus came according to the promises made by the prophets, I know that every promise He has made me, personal and general, will come to pass. Because of the 400 years of silence between the prophecy and the promise, I know the waiting period may be long. But because the Savior entered the world at exactly the right time, precisely when specific people were primed and positioned to receive and deliver His message, I know that He will arrange my days, the fulfillment of my promises, in exactly the way and the time that is right.

There are many days I want to rush past those 400 years, so to speak, but because of the beauty of the Christmas story, I know the best things await at the end of the waiting. And that God’s timing is never too late.

Maybe it’s the world right now; maybe it’s my world right now. Maybe it’s a spirit that would have grown in me anyway as I got older. I honestly don’t know. I do know that I’m happy to have felt it, and even when I struggle, I want to see the magic of the Christmas season. I want to never again judge the lovely soul who sings Christmas carols in October. I want to smile in excitement at every Christmas light displayed in the weeks before Thanksgiving. I want to soak in every instance now that Advent has begun; I want to breathe in every second of these 20-odd days: the whole crisp cold, the still-falling leaves in front of my window, the sweaters, the lights, the spices, the hope, the joy, the Jesus.

Merry Christmas, everyone. May your whole season be wonderful.