Tomorrow, December 3rd marks the beginning of Advent, 2023. For this advent I’ll be sharing “Christmas Changes Everything…How the Birth of Jesus Brings Hope to the World.”

I hope you will enjoy this daily Advent series.

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INTRODUCTION

When Christmas Becomes Christmas

My eyes opened to darkness. Still! When would it ever be morning?

I flipped my 9 year old self toward the wall, squeezed my eyes shut, and tried to go back to sleep. Again. Hours, before, I had listened as my mother read “The Night Before Christmas” and then slipped into sugar plum filled dreams. Now I wrestled with impatience on this not quite yet Christmas morning.

Sigh. Butterflies flitted in my tummy as I imagined creeping down the hallway in our ranch style home. I could hardly wait to see what Santa had left. I pictured the red felt stockings hanging from the mantle-the names scripted in white stitching for us. They’d been flat and flimsy the night before, but now they would bulge with an orange, nuts, candies, and a few surprises. Mom’s family opened presents on Christmas Eve, but there were always a few more Santa surprises displayed about the room on Christmas morning.

After discovering the treasures from Santa, we enjoyed hours of uninterrupted fun. Late in the day we gathered around a table heaped with turkey, dressing, and mashed potatoes. Green and black olives would cap my fingertips until I scooped each into my mouth and made way for pumpkin pie.

I loved Christmas. Or at least, I loved what I thought was Christmas at the time.

Tinsel covering a real evergreen tree. Shiny ball ornaments displayed in a crystal bowl in the living room. Steak and baked potatoes on Christmas Eve, and turkey and trimmings on Christmas night. Sometimes the grandparents made the drive down in their old car heavy laden with glittering gifts. Christmas cards arrived, were opened, and then were Scotch-taped in the shape of a tree to the family room wall. The Andy Williams and Bing Crosby White Christmas albums blared from the stereo as we decorated the tree. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Frosty the Snowman”, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” each offered thirty minute slots of holiday entertainment on December Friday nights.

I loved it!

Yet when Christmas became Christmas, everything changed. Sure, some things stayed the same: decorations and presents and celebration and family and choirs and fun. But a deeper meaning grew in my heart and soul as I discovered that what I’d always thought of as Christmas was simply an outer wrapping containing a better gift than I’d ever imagined. I dug around in the tissue and decorative packaging of Christmas and discovered something-Someone-greater. A glorious reality that would never be put away after the holiday and its glittery celebration had passed.

Christmas became Christmas in a gradual shift from year to year as I grew up. A move from the awesome moment atop Santa’s lap at the department store to a growing wonder as my mother lit a candle and read a special book to us before bed. “The Little Drummer Boy.” “The Shiniest Star”, “Santa’s Greatest Gift.” With the turn of each page, my mind wondered a bit more. Who was this baby Jesus? Why was He so special? What did it mean that Mary and Joseph rode on a donkey to a safe place to give Him birth? Why shepherds and wise men? Why angels and stars?

Looking back at 5 year old me and then 10 year old me and even teenage me, I know now that Christmas didn’t really become Christmas to me until Easter became Easter. it took standing face to face with the stunning sacrifice of God’s Son on a cross-for me and for my sin-to grasp the “real” meaning of Christmas. The anguish. The pain. The utter devastation of His heart in separation from His Father. The miraculous coming to life on Easter morning when Jesus conquered death once and for all. For all of us.

God’s death and resurrection at Easter transported me back in His story to a new understanding of God’s birth in a manger. Christmas became Christmas when I realized the true gift: God came as a baby who would grow up and live and die and be raised from the dead for me. I responded with a heartfelt yes! A yes that became an offering of my own gifts to others at Christmas out of my love for Him.

When did Christmas become Christmas for you? When did it shift into more than Santa and stockings and presents? When did it convert into more than choirs and candles and carolers? When did Christmas morph into more than family? Perhaps you’re still on the edge of Christmas, wondering about its real meaning, longing for more than the window dressing offered in our world.

When Christmas becomes Christmas, it changes everything!

In this Advent series we will look at the central figures portrayed in the Christmas story in Scripture and discover how Christmas became Christmas to each…and how that discovery changed everything in their lives. We’ll take the time to explore how:

• Christmas changed Mary from a virgin to the mother of our Savior who accepted God’s invitation for her life.
• Christmas changed Joseph from a grieving fiance to a committed husband and the stepfather of Jesus who yielded his way to God’s.
• Christmas changed Zechariah from a man who doubted to a father who believed in God’s faithfulness.
• Christmas changed Elizabeth from a disgraced, childless woman who wondered about her worth to a rejoicing mother who saw God’s favor fulfilled in her life.
• Christmas changed the shepherds from lowly workers watching over lambs to men called to worship the Lamb of God and share the good news of His arrival.
• Christmas changed Simeon from a waiting man to a fulfilled follower.
• Christmas changed Anna from a woman who worshiped in fervent hope to one who worshiped with experienced conviction.
• Christmas changed the magi from those seeking truth to those who discovered the Source of all truth.
• Christmas changed Herod from a man who could discover faith and find freedom to one who rejected learning and instead followed after fear.

When Christmas becomes Christmas, it changes you and me. From the moment we first thrill to its twinkly promise of something more than the ordinary to our discovery of the true hope of the holy night, we come to receive its real gift of sacrifice and salvation.

Christmas changes everything. It gives meaning to our meanderings, wonder to our wanderings, and joy to our journeys.

May this be a Christmas when you both explore and receive the true change-the metamorphosis-of Christmas in your heart, in your home, and in your world!