Journey to the Light

With Thanksgiving securely behind us we now turn to the last and most important season left in the year: the shopping season. Of course I jest but I do so in a half-serious tone because for many people, even Christians, the season is less and less about the birth of Jesus Christ and more about the search for the perfect gift or purchase. It seemed to happen so subtly. We celebrated the advent season, a season of prayerful preparation towards that wonderful day where we commemorate the coming of our savior into the world, with songs and lessons about the the history and spirit of Christmas. We strove for ways to demonstrate how the love of God had touched us and how the gift of His Son had saved us by being charitable to others. But the gifts became more elaborate as the season became more commercialized. We found newer ways to shop, save money, and elicit that tell tale smile that lets us know that we have evoked a warm and fuzzy feeling in our loved one.

Then we began to succumb to the popular culture's desire to remove everything that is Christian from Christmas. They argued that Christmas was their holiday now. It didn't have to be about Jesus Christ. That was too narrow. It was about the "season of giving", that feeling we get inside that we get for doing a good deed. And while it is important to give we must acknowledge the greatest gift we have received (our salvation) and the greatest gift we can share (the love of God). So now sadly, Christmas has become an endangered holiday with countless distractions, anxiety over making the perfect dinner, decorating the perfect tree, and making the perfect memory.

The challenge then for Christians is to draw the focus away from the distractions back to the true meaning. I have been using an analogy all week with my students in chapel that I feel has edified both them and myself. Anytime we look up at the sky at night we are blessed to see a number of stars. But unfortunately most of us live in areas, both suburban and urban, that prevent us from seeing the brightest starts and even planets. To see them we must leave the comfort of the city and town to the country where the night sky is unchallenged by the light pollution. In a sense we remove the distractions, remove everything that was getting in the way of the light, to see what we were looking for all along. It is the same with this season. Can we be strong enough to push aside the materialism, the desire for self-fulfillment for the true focus of the season? Can we recognize the most brilliant light in the heavens that has come down to be one of us?

Each year I have seen so many people (I include myself in this guilty act) of loving a gift momentarily and then forgetting about it after a short while. That is the nature of the gifts we receive. We love for them a moment and then we love the next thing that comes along. But what if the gift of a savior, the gift we receive this season was meant to love us? What if that gift never lost interest or love for us? What if that gift came to reconnect us with a God who loves us as his wonderful creation made in His image? If we could recognize that gift under the tree then we wouldn't wish each other a "Merry Christmas". We would welcome each other as siblings in a reunited family. We would see the greatest light touch each of us in a way nothing else can.