I Need Christmas
Anyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely love Christmas. It truly is the “most wonderful time of the year”! I am like a little kid in a candy store when it comes to Christmas. I thoroughly enjoy every aspect. And, though I have worked in retail for the last three years, I have refused to let retail destroy all that I hold dear about Christmas. I love to hear the soft voice of Nat King Cole singing “The Christmas Song” or watch for the hundredth time Erving Berlin’s “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby and Danny Kay. In fact, Bing Crosby is about as synonymous with Christmas as decorated trees and presents. There is nothing quite like the smell of baked goods floating through the house was we get closer to the big day! Even better, there is the nostalgia of placing an old Christmas record of Dean Martin on the turn table and listening to the crackling of the record as it fills the room with the his sultry voice. And I don’t even mind the traffic or battling the crowds as I look for that perfect gift for those I love. I love snow. And when snow and Christmas decide to have a reunion, it is even better. Oh yes, and did I mention that I decorate my room for Christmas? Then there are Christmas parties with family and friends, which are in abundance. Yes, there is nothing like Christmas…
But in all of this, there is something that I am realizing afresh as I enjoy the traditions of Christmas this year: I need Christmas. Not just the traditions of Christmas, but the advent of Christmas – the coming of our dear little Savior. The sweet and innocent child that came, born of lowly and humble origins, so that I might know the forgiveness of my sins. And this was how it had to be so that the Man Child might fulfill all and purchase our redemption.
I have been renewed in my delight of the true reality of Christmas in my devotional readings of John Piper’s ‘Good News of Great Joy’. Piper puts it best this way:
“Christmas is an indictment before it becomes a delight. It will not have its intended effect until we feel desperately the need for a Savior. Let…short Advent meditations help awaken in you a bittersweet sense of need for the Savior.”
So as I reflect on why I love Christmas so much, I realize that the joy that I experience at this time of the year is because of the redemption of my heart, soul, and mind. Though I do not see as I should, I see in part. And that is because of the glorious unmerited grace of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even in the “trivial” things that I love so much about Christmas, there is joy because ultimately it is the celebration of and the reminder that Christ has come, died, and rose again so that I might know salvation [Luke 1:16-17]. The “trivial” things of Christmas are not trivial anymore. They are redeemed. I have a new perspective – a mind that is being renewed [Romans 12]. And this is why I have always and still do need Christmas.
Daniel Cavanaugh
