11/29/2005—
What is Christmas all about?
This year, I seem to have a different feeling about Christmas. I want it to mean more. When I was growing up and into adulthood, I spent Christmas with my parents and there just wasn’t really much to it. We might go to church on Christmas Eve (usually without Dad), but more likely we’d go see Christmas lights. Then we’d come home and open presents. But I was always deeply dissatisfied and it was hard to hide it, as my parents know well. Christmas was about presents for me, but now I find myself more actively looking for some satisfaction in Christmas. I will be making an effort to go to a Christmas Eve service, even though I work that evening. In the month before Christmas, I will be buying Christmas movies (with Christian themes) and Christmas music (again, with Christian themes). I’ve purchased one of my favorite movies, It’s A Wonderful Life. And I’ve got my radio tuned to the station that plays Christmas music all the time (see my comments on that above). And I’ve put up a two-foot tall artificial tree in my apartment. But still, I feel like I’m still missing the mark.
I have, though, recently bought a book that might help turn me around. It’s Lee Strobel’s new book, The Case for Christmas. His premise is that “Jesus is the reason for the season,” as they say, and if he didn’t exist, or wasn’t God, or didn’t rise from the dead, then Christmas is meaningless. I’ve also started to read C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, and that may help, too. And all this thinking I’ve done recently.
I’ll report back later.