Welcoming the Child Jesus this Christmas season
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Now that the Christmas season is officially upon us, having just celebrated Christ’s coming on Christmas day, perhaps we’re all feeling a little tired albeit joyful!
Maybe you’ve been distracted by the run-up to Christmas - frantically buying last-minute gifts, worrying about the budget that was stretched too far or dealing with tough family dynamics.
To quote the well-known cliché, we can end up forgetting the real reason for the season - God made man - and that all these things we do, are a means not an end.
Many of us can forget that Christmas is a season - not just a day. So, how can we reset our focus and put Christ at the centre of this season?
Find time for silence
No matter where you go at this time of year, there’s noise somewhere! The carols, songs and festivities are all wonderful but at times it can verge on commotion and clamour! And if it isn’t external noise, it’s our mind racing with all the plates we need to keep spinning.
However, if we want to have an encounter with God this Christmas, we have to be able to hear him. And silence is the beginning. Praying at a crib scene can be great chance for us to step back, slow down and contemplate the Christ child, so that we can hear him speak to us.
Stay close to Mary
So many times I have wondered what exactly went through Mary’s mind as she and Jospeh travelled to Bethlehem. We often see Mary depicted as pristine and even on occasion expressionless…we might wonder what we could have in common with her. Well, a lot actually.
Although she is the perfect woman, that doesn’t mean she was without character. She too was just an ordinary woman in the world. We forget that her journey and her birth was tough and messy and that she was strong and resilient. Despite the chaos, she knew that her joy and her peace didn’t come from the fact that everything was working out perfectly for her. Her joy and her peace came from her Son and she can help us to remember that as well.
Put people before things
It’s all too easy to look at the ads around us, whether it’s online or on television that depicts Christmas as absolute perfection, forgetting that a lot of hard work and effort goes into making Christmas magical for others around us. If we compare ourselves to these polished images, wondering why it’s such hard work for us, we can soon become resentful and agitated.
Doing all of the cleaning, the cooking and the entertaining does involve sacrifice, and it can have a supernatural meaning if we can reframe that sacrifice of time, effort and money, as being a gift of ourselves to others. We are showing our love for others through all these things, just as God shows his love for us by being born in the stable.
It is important that we rest and try to remember that a Christmas full of joy doesn’t equate to perfection. If something does go wrong or there’s an item that hasn’t been ticked off the list, we have permission to let it go. Perhaps we can ask ourselves; what are the memories we want our families to have of us this Christmas? What memories do we want to have of ourselves at this time? Stressed, anxious and frazzled? Or cheerful, calm and present to those around us?
This Christmas, I hope I can hold onto these reminders to stop, slow down and truly be with my family. It is there in that messiness of ordinary, chaotic life with dirty dishes, turkey leftovers and toys strewn everywhere that I will welcome the child Jesus and my wish is that you will too. Happy Christmas.
