Happy Sad Christmas

I have noticed over the years that Christmas can really live up to being the “most wonderful time of the year”. You often see family you have missed for much too long. The holiday gives you a wonderful excuse to lavish gifts on the people you love (and receive some in return!!). It practically becomes a law in December that you must consume vast quantities of fat and sugar. Everyone is smiley and happy and people put reindeer antlers on their cars and pretty lights on their houses. It is fun, fun, fun!!!

And yet, I have also noticed all the extra joy and happiness have the potential to also make the sad parts of life seem, well, sadder.

Most of us have sat in front of the Christmas tree and looked at the presents, knowing full well that the thing we really wish could be wrapped up and given to us could never fit into a box. Another candy cane doesn’t bring back a friend or relative whose life was shorter than seemed fair. A nice gift card to the Gap can’t get you the job you have been searching for since last Christmas. The perfect man rarely can fit in a box under the tree- unless his name is Ken and he has plastic hair and comes with accessories to match your Pink Corvette. (Barbie, by the way, has never had a bite of burnt toast in her life. Everything about her stays young, in its place and she is allowed to wear sequined sweatpants. That is so unfair to the rest of us. Had to get that out before it ate me up. Sorry.)

My favorite Christmas song is “Oh Holy Night”. But there are some others I love to listen to that are, quite honestly, a bit melancholy. I can’t get enough the idea of skating away from my problems when I listen to “River” by Joni Mitchell, and I have this song by Dido on my iPod called “Christmas Day” that is a desperately sad tale of a girl who falls in love with a man and he is supposed to come back from a trip and never does. You can just tell by the way Dido sings that he would have loved her forever if he had returned. Oh the tragedy!! Oh- and don’t get me started on “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”. The thought of all the soldiers fighting for freedom while I unwrap a new lotion from Bath and Body Works will guilt me into me eating at least five more pieces of fudge and then call everyone I know who ever served in the armed forces and personally thank them for their sacrifices.

And then I realize how important Christmas parties, twinkly lights, sugar covered sugary balls of sugar and all the fa-la-la-ing are for our hearts. It is important for us to celebrate and enjoy the blessings of freedom, of love and of peace. Those blessings did not come cheaply. God and men have worked hard to ensure we have access to them. There should be a longing along with that celebration that rings out in our soul for more peace, more love, more joy. That is the song of God’s own heart. That is the message of Christ’s life. Oh, that we would find a way to let that Christmas message overflow into the rest of the year! The miracle of a Christ-child, fully God and still fully man, sent to save the world from sin and sorrow and reunite us to God, only points out the aching need of mankind for a true Savior. The birth of Jesus is a happy sad moment. Happy for a messiah, sad for what he would endure on the cross.

Joy pierced with sorrow. That is the true message of Christmas. I imagine God looks at the presents under the tree and longs to see things that can’t be put in boxes too. A life surrendered to the God who loves us enough to leave heaven and live a a man, die as a criminal and rise in glory can’t fit in a box. But that must be exactly what He wants this year. I will give Him my life this year and every year to come. I wonder how many others will do the same.