Where Is Christmas?

Ready or not … here comes Christmas!

For the next few weeks, I’d like to help prepare your heart for the most glorious … the most anticipated … and certainly the most wonderful day of the entire calendar year! 

So … are you ready?! Because here comes Christmas … whether you like it or not!

I hope that I can help you celebrate Christmas like you truly mean it … in a sincere, joyful and heartfelt manner. 

Does anyone remember the haunting lyrics to the song, “Where Are You Christmas?” 

In case you have forgotten the words to this contemporary Christmas song … or have never heard it before … here you go:

“Where are you Christmas?
Why can't I find you?
Why have you gone away?
Where is the laughter
You used to bring me?
Why can't I hear music play?

My world is changing,
I'm rearranging ~
Does that mean Christmas changes too?

Where are you Christmas?
Do you remember
The one you used to know?
I'm not the same one
See what the time's done
Is that why you have let me go?”

Where IS Christmas?

This is a poignant yet meaningful question that we should all consider this first week of December in the momentous year of 2020. 

I think that if we would be honest, we could all admit to losing Christmas from time to time.

There have been years that I have lost the heart of Christmas in the midst of busy-ness … in the throes of stress… in overcommitting to the wrong things and under-committing to the right things … or in lack of finances. 

Some people lose Christmas to despair … or to depression … or even to understandable grief.

This year, perhaps some of you have lost Christmas in the midst of a political mess … to a vicious pandemic … in the quandary of fiction vs. truth … to the fierce racial division that still exists in our country … or even to the loneliness that a quarantine has created in your life.

So … where is Christmas? And when you have lost it … is it possible to find it again?

Maybe the problem is that we have been looking for Christmas in all of the wrong places.

I know where Christmas is and you won’t find it at the mall … by baking Christmas cookies … or even in the laughter at holiday get-togethers.

Christmas is not found in the opening of presents … by the giving of gifts … or by going deeply into debt to buy just a “little something” for everyone on your list.

Amazon can’t deliver Christmas! Imagine that! Amazon doesn’t own Christmas and can’t deliver it even if you are a prime member! It’s impossible!

Christmas is not found under the tree … nor is it discovered in the lights however bright they might be at your town square.

Christmas is not packed away in a box every year on January 1 and then unwrapped on the day after Thanksgiving of the following year.

So … where is Christmas?

Take heart, my friends, because I have solved the mystery of Christmas!

Christmas is found in a humble, unpretentious place. 

Christmas is found in the manger among the drooling sheep … the sleepy-eyed cows … and a young mother who is gazing into the face of God.

Christmas is there.

Christmas is found on a dark hillside just outside of Bethlehem with a group of cold and bedraggled shepherds. These men had lost all of their hope but suddenly their world was interrupted by the song of the angels!

Christmas is there.

Christmas is found in the joy of the magi who couldn’t hold back their heartfelt worship and their unmatched celebration!

Christmas is there.

Christmas is found on the pages of Scripture that tells the story of Jesus who came to the world simply because He loved us so.

Christmas is there.

There was no other way to reach mankind … not through the sacrifice of animals … or in perfectly conforming to the lifestyle of the 10 Commandments … or by having friends in high places.

Christmas is found in the extraordinary and eternal love that God has for His children.

Christmas is found in the heart of a pursuing God who always desires relationship with those He created. 

So if you are looking for Christmas this year … perhaps you should stop looking in all of the wrong places.

Start your quest for Christmas by reading the story of the Infant King who came to save His people from their sins. You can find it in Luke Chapters 1 and 2. 

And then … make room for Him.  

Make room for Jesus in the hustle and bustle of the next 25 days. 

Make room for Him in the midst of depression … of a pandemic … of political uproar … and loneliness.

Welcome Him into your heart and into your home this year.

I have room for Christmas, do you?

I have room for Christmas because I have room for Jesus.

My heart is His Bethlehem … and my life is His manger. 

The song of the angels now sings in my heart and is bursting forth into my formerly hopeless and vacant world!

I have found Christmas … and I am filled with His wonder and with the joy of His presence! 

Thanks for listening to my heart this week.  As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me.  And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!