It seems that with all the church’s preoccupation with keeping “Christ” in Christmas (which is a good thing) we can be dangerously close to missing Him ourselves. I could agree more than with what Jared Wilson recently wrote in a post entitled This Christmas, Don’t Let Jesus Distract You from Jesus. He writes:
There is a great danger this Christmas season of missing the point. And I’m not referring simply to idolatrous consumption and materialism. I’m talking about Christmas religiosity. It is very easy around this time to set up our Nativity scenes, host our Christmas pageants and cantatas, read the Christmas story with our families, attend church every time the door is open, and insist to ourselves and others that Jesus is the reason for the season, and yet not see Jesus. With the eyes of our heart, I mean.
I suppose there is something about indulging in the religious Christmas routine that lulls us into thinking we are dwelling in Christ when we are really just set to seasonal autopilot, going through the festive and sentimental motions. Meanwhile the real person Jesus the Christ goes neglected in favor of his plastic, paper, and video representations. Don’t get distracted from Jesus by “Jesus.” This year, plead with the Spirit to interrupt your nice Christmas with the power of Jesus’ gospel.
I wonder if we aren’t guilty of missing the True Light of this season ourselves? So how about it? Will you “plead with the Spirit to interrupt your nice Christmas with the power of Jesus’ gospel”? Do this and see if this doesn’t end up being a Christmas you’ll always remember.