What is your mood this Christmastime? And what would improve it?

By Dean Collins

What is your mood as you prepare for Christmas this year? Over my lifetime I have observed and experienced several different feelings during the Advent season. Maybe you can relate. Here are a few common moods:

Stress
Joy
Anticipation
Grief
Nostalgia

There always seems to be a frenetic pace in December. Everything we were doing the first 11 months of the year continues: normal work, bills to be paid, deals to be closed, and all of the daily tasks of getting the kids off to school, eating, sleeping, exercising, and more. But December adds a significant amount of extras.

For example:

Get the Christmas decorations out of the attic and up at the house, the church, and the office.
Shop for gifts for those you love and even those you don’t.
Prepare special foods and treats for parties and family gatherings.
Attend extra Christmas events at the church, the company, and the club.
Make a hundred decisions about all of the above while the clock ticks away and every minute brings you closer to Christmas Eve.

And, with all of this, we must figure out how somehow to stay sane and enjoy the season!

Celebrate correctly

It’s interesting to consider that it wasn't until the fourth century that Christ’s followers began to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It was the fifth century or later when the church began the tradition of Advent. These celebrations were introduced in part as alternatives to pagan celebrations of the winter solstice and the coming of light as each day reveals longer moments of sun.

Maybe Dietrich Bonhoeffer was on to something when as a young man he raised this question in the growing secularism of his day:

“Who of us would want to celebrate Christmas correctly? Who will finally lay at the manger all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all pride and all selfishness? Who is content to be lowly and to let God alone be high? Who sees the glory of God in the humble state of the child in the manger? Who says with Mary: 'The Lord has been mindful of my humble state. My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior’?”

Well, I suppose we would all like to celebrate Christmas correctly. But maybe we struggle because we are so easily swayed by the world as the enemy of God cleverly distracts us from all that truly matters, Christ and his kingdom.

Anticipate his coming

Advent is about waiting for and anticipating the coming of Jesus in three ways;

1) We of course celebrate the gift of the Christ born in a manger long ago. We remember this unbelievable gift of love given to us when God became flesh and chose to live with us.
2) We pray for and anticipate his promised second coming when he returns as King to restore all things.
3) We pray for and wait for a fresh coming of Christ in our hearts so he can strengthen us and open our eyes and minds to his daily work in our lives.

The apostle John, late in his life on the Isle of Patmos, received a glorious visitation from Jesus who revealed some but not all details of his eventual glorious return. John told us that every eye will see him. Jesus told John and us: “I am the Alpha and the Omega . . . who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

John’s reaction to his visitation by Jesus was to fall at his feet in worship and holy fear. Jesus placed his right hand on John to ease his sense of being overwhelmed at what he had seen and spoke these words of comfort: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

Bonhoeffer continued his Advent thoughts with this challenge:

"The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come. For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in the child in the manger. God comes."

The One was, who is, and who is to come is always present. So what is our mood this Christmas season?

May it be humble surrender to Jesus our King. Let us pray for his fresh arrival in our hearts while we also pray for his final return when there truly will be peace on earth for eternity.

Your time with God’s Word
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭1‬:‭4‬-‭5‬, ‭7‬-‭9, 17-18 ‭ESV‬‬

Photo by Polina Zimmerman at Pexels.com

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