Inhabit Christmas
How can we live the story of God this season?
As I sit in front of my keyboard, the sun streams through the window, warming my back. The sweet smells of a cashmere-scented candle waft through the air while the melodies of “Everlasting God” fill the in-between spaces.
“Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord,
We will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord …”
In the Christian year, December is the time of waiting. The time of Advent. A remembrance of the years the world waited in anticipation for its king, the Messiah, to come. The time each year when we wait, amid hardship and struggle, in grief and pain, but with hope and expectation that God is not far away.
As I sit sipping my lemon and ginger tea, I find myself pondering what I am waiting for this season. These verses in Romans 8 from “The Message” enter my mind.
“All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.”
Where are you yearning for relief, for deliverance, this season?
Can you inhabit the still un-folding story of God with joy and expectancy?
I find it helpful to stay checked in with myself. Am I reacting or responding to situations? Is my heart motivated by love or obligation? Is my time rushed and hectic or slow and more purposeful? Is my soul at rest in the waiting or anxious in the doing? I then adjust to find a place of peace.
If Advent is the season of waiting, Christmas is the season of wonder.
It is a season to sip hot cocoa and share life with a friend, fill the house with carols as you decorate the tree, pray for your family and friends as you shop for their gifts, and bake or send cards to those you love.
Yet so often, we let the crazies invade our calm. As author Gabe Huck puts it, “We take our Christmas with lots of sugar. And we take it in a day.” We have traded in the deep hope and joy that comes with Christmas for warm fuzzies and bite-sized pieces of happiness.
Christmas can be different this year.
Consider Christmas an invitation to inhabit the Christ story more intentionally and deeply. Specifically, consider extending your celebration through the twelve days of Christmas (yes, that’s a real thing). Bask in the wonder for more than a day. How? Here are a few ideas from “Living the Christian Year” by Bobby Gross.
- Keep your tree and decorations up until the end of the Christmas season on January 5.
- Read Luke 2:1-20 together as a family. Talk about what the months and days might have been like leading up to Christ’s birth.
- Host a leftovers party on December 26 for friends or neighbors.
- Save some of your gifts for the twelve days of Christmas.
- Plan one or two special activities with your children or friends.
- Get outdoors to enjoy creation.
- Write the cards or notes that by choice or circumstance you did not send earlier.
- Rehearse scriptures, say prayers, light candles, and play music fit for Christmas.
- Hold a Twelfth Night party on the eve of epiphany (January 5).
I encourage you to take time to savor that on Christmas, all those years ago, “The Word became flesh and lived among us (John 1:14).”
Let’s live the story of God this season.
Inhabit Christmas.