Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year… the cold
weather that encourages snuggling, hot cocoa, baking galore, bright lights,
decorations everywhere. Towns transform. The countdown for Christmas Day hangs
cheerily in the air.
Sometimes it can be so easy to forget the point of it all.
We get rushed and irritable and frustrated with the planning and shopping and
cleaning and decorating and possible family drama and cheesy music played over
and over. I know I have been prone to yell at my hubby when we forgot to buy a
gift for someone-so in the midst of the craziness.
This year, I talked a lot with my junior high students about
what the season is about. I asked them what they planned to do over the break. Most
talked about family but some talked about sleeping and playing video games and
buying gifts.
Talking about the Christmas season with my students helped
me to point them to the reminder that sometimes we can get caught up in the
STUFF. The material things. I told them that I couldn’t remember a single gift
that I got during my junior high years. All it is stuff. Stuff rots away. But
what will last is Jesus Christ. What will last are our souls, the people around
us. We discussed that we should invest our time, energy, love into the Lord and
the people in our lives. I reminded them that no matter how many hours of sleep
you get over the break, you will not be completely rested until you find rest
in Christ alone. Jesus is the Prince of Peace.
The STUFF can get in the way of the real reason we
celebrate. Every store is stuffed full of bright and shiny decorations,
encouraging you to buy their products. But no one will find true fulfillment in
any of the gifts they will open this year.
I started thinking about the message we send to kids through
the traditional Christmas songs and movies. The idea of the “naughty and nice
list” is taught, that if you are “good” all year, you get gifts, but if you are
“bad” you get coal. I don’t think I know a single family that actually talks
about this being reality but the whole message is so wrong in my mind. The
gospel of Jesus Christ says that we are all, each of us, a sinner, a “bad”
person. If there really was a naughty list, every person in the world would be
on it. The gospel message says that Christ died for us when we were sinners,
not when we were good. When you accept Jesus Christ, God sees you as righteous
and “good” only by what Jesus did, not by what we do. We cannot earn salvation.
We cannot do enough good things to ever be on a nice list. I also think that
motivating kids to have good behavior just to get gifts is so silly. What about
choosing to treat people kindly to honor God and only for that reason?
At my school every year, I have been in charge of setting up
a Secret Santa gift exchange for students. The idea is supposed to be that you
surprise the person you are assigned to with a gift each day. In the past, I
have had the worst experience. I have had parents emailing me that the gift
they bought was bigger than the one their student got. I’ve had kids crying
about the gifts they got or even the person they were assigned to because they
didn’t like them. It was really frustrating. This year, I was honest with my
students about the reasons I was frustrated in the past. I spoke with them
about why loving on someone with no expectation of what you will get in return
is how God loves us and the Secret Santa gift exchange is a way to show others
that love. It was really cool to see them live that out this year and this year
ended up being the best exchange we have ever had.
I think I am mostly writing to provoke thought and what I
may choose to teach my kids through the Christmas season. It would be so cool
as a parent to have my children open up coal and teach them that we are all
“naughty” and sinners who don’t deserve gifts. But then to present them with
gifts and teach them that this is how God loves us- we didn’t do anything to
deserve the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ but He gave to us anyway. Just
some Christmas thoughts I wanted to share that I am chewing on. I am so humbled
by the undeserved GIFT we have in Jesus Christ.
“For
to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his
shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will
be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing
and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” Isaiah 9:6-7
I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and Happy
New Year!
Merry Christmas from the Luikens!
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