I hope your stockings are hung, your tree is lit, and you’re reading this with hot cocoa or coffee in your favorite Christmas mug. Like anyone, I can grow weary of the commercialism and the endless obligations, but I truly love almost everything about this season. I love pulling into the driveway after work only to load up the family and go look at lights. I love the wonder and anticipation on my kids’ faces. And I love settling in for classic Christmas movies–Elf is the best and you can’t convince me otherwise.
But I’m also aware that the sweetness of Christmas is often tinged with bitterness. Joy and grief can mingle together. In 2017, my family tragically lost my sister. She was 30, and her love for Christmas rivaled mine. I’ll never forget that phone call. Even now, my eyes fill with tears as I think about another Christmas without her.
Add to that some complicated family dynamics--some relatives I long to see, others I may or may not see depending on whether they show up–and I’m reminded that each of you have your own unique blends of joys and sorrows that meet you at Christmastime.
I don’t share any of this to be a downer. I share it because it’s real. And in a way, isn’t this mixture of happiness and longing what Christmas is actually about? At Christmas we remember with joy the promise fulfilled in Christ’s first coming, and we long with anticipation for the day He will come again to make everything that’s horribly wrong become irreversibly and gloriously right again. Living in this tension–the “already, not yet”–is at the heart of our faith.
Here are three ways to live in light of Christ’s first and second coming this Christmas:
1. Remember with joy.
Consider adding a simple Advent reading to your daily time in God’s Word. Come, Let Us Adore Him by Paul David Tripp has been helpful for me. Go look at lights with your kids and talk about how Jesus is the Light of the World who stepped into our darkness to save us and to dazzle us with His glory (see Isaiah 9:2, 6-7). Slow down. Remember with joy the grace that has come to you through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
2. Long with anticipation.
If tears come this year, let them come. The Psalms are filled with both high highs and low lows. Bring your longings to God in honest prayer. Cast your anxieties upon Him–He cares for you (see 1 Peter 5:7). One day Jesus will wipe away every tear from the eyes of His people (see Revelation 21:1-5). Until that day, bring your frustrations, doubts, aches, and hopes to Him.
3. Live as an Everyday Missionary.
Jesus left the comfort of heaven to dwell among us in our sin and mess (see John 1:14). As His followers, we are called to step out of comfort and into the lives of those God has placed around us. Open your eyes to see those for whom Christ died. Open your home to the family member who’s difficult to love. Open your wallet in sacrificial generosity. Open your mouth to share the good news of great joy for all people (see Luke 2:10–14).
Christ has come.
Christ is with you.
Christ will come again.
Merry Christmas.