Presents or Presence?

Merry Christmas to my average audience of 3.7 blog-readers. I've upped the average recently due to posted comments from a couple of people I don't know. I only hope to reach that awesome, round-number benchmark of 8.14 one day!

Every year, Christmas comes and goes. I always feel like I'm missing something from the season, as if I'm missing out on some special "experience" from the holidays. The gifts and music and gatherings and Charlie Brown Christmas Special are all great, but I wonder if, each year, some kind of "magic" escaped me.

I can't go through the season without watching Charlie Brown's Christmas at least once. I'll be turning 30 in a couple of months. Something about it turns me into a softened little boy. A while back, when I was living with a roommate, my roommate walked in on me, in the living room, watching Snoopy and Charlie Brown. This was a few years ago. The look on my roommate's face... you would have thought he was witnessing me performing some kind of illegal voodoo ritual with incense burning and dark organ music. But no, I was watching Snoopy win a Christmas decoration contest for his doghouse, and Charlie Brown directing the Christmas play.

You can imagine the picture. I'm built like a tank... I'm about six feet tall, about 220 lbs with a rather muscular build, well-worn jeans or cargo pants, big baggy T-shirts and sweat shirts, typical dude. I'm the last person you would think would be laughing like crazy over Snoopy's shenanigans.

I think it harkens me back to my childhood... and with all of the both declarations of scripture in that show, which ordinarily would never be allowed on network television these days, it provided me with my first, authentic spiritual experiences in my youth. I watched a little group of cartoon kids and a goofy beagle find the true meaning of Christmas.

And I know the true meaning of Christmas more than ever now. But I can't help but wonder if there is some higher level of fulfillment in the season that I missed. I could care less about the presents. But every year, stores go over-commercial, families go nuts trying to please everyone on their lists, hosts of family get-togethers kick it into overdrive to make sure the food it right and the kids are occupied and the living room is set up properly and the tree doesn't get accidentally knocked over landing onto the host family's annoying new puppy. My Christmas still involves hustle and bustle, with everyone around me just trying to survive crowds before the big day, and the stress of the actual day.

And I haven't actually been able to share the joys of true meaning of Christmas with anyone with any level of depth.

I'm not surrounded by the most spiritual people during a holiday, so it all seems like a tired routine. I'm at the point now where I'm willing to spend holidays with someone else, just as a break from a routine that has increasingly diverted from the true meaning of Christmas.

I think the trick is that God blesses people with His presence when a group, no matter how big or small, share with each other, and truly celebrate, the true reason Christmas happens. And God is pleased when people mimic God's sending of Jesus Christ by making a genuine, heartfelt sacrifice for someone else. It's deeper than giving a good gift. It's an expression of love and hope.

And that's what Christmas is. God the Father made a huge sacrifice of love... sending His Son Jesus into the world as a vulnerable, lowly baby, because He loved a dark, broken, and depraved human race. He gave hope to people, as an expression of extreme love.

This season, even after today is over, celebrate Christ in Christmas, and sacrifice for those who mean the most to you.