Not Feeling It Yet

Thanksgiving is now over.  A month from last Sunday will be Christmas Day.  Are you in the Christmas spirit?

I have to confess that I’m not.  Don’t get me wrong.  I have not turned into some sort of Grinch who hates Christmas.  I’m actually looking forward to Christmas.  But that’s the thing--I’m looking forward to Christmas.  I’m not feeling like it is Christmas, or even the Christmas season.  Not yet.

I’m not sure why that is.  Part of it might be that the weather has been pretty nice so far.  Don’t get me wrong--I’m not complaining about that.  I’d love it if we had highs in the 40s and 50s all winter and then got warmer in the spring.  I know it doesn’t work like that, of course.  In fact, it’s supposed to turn this weekend.  The point is that I normally associate Christmas with cold and snow, and we haven’t had much of either yet.  So maybe that’s my problem--it just doesn’t feel like Christmas yet.

But I think another part of my problem is that we start hearing about Christmas so early these days.  The stores start putting out Christmas stuff in October.  The Hallmark Channel has been running wall-to-wall Christmas movies since before Halloween.  Satellite radio has had Christmas music available since about that same time.  That’s not wrong, exactly.  But it seems to me that when we hear about Christmas so early, it takes away from the specialness of the season.

But maybe you say, well, what’s wrong with that?  After all, the spirit of Christmas is love and happiness.  What’s wrong with starting those feelings early?  In fact, wouldn’t it be a good thing to feel those things all year long?

Well, yes and no.  I’m not opposed to love and happiness, of course.  They’re wonderful things.  But that should not be all Christmas means.  When we limit Christmas to that, we reduce Christmas to just a warm, fuzzy feeling.  And while there’s nothing wrong with warm, fuzzy feelings, that’s not all Christmas should be.

Christmas, primarily, is about the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  Jesus did not come to earth just to give us a warm, fuzzy feeling.  He came to teach us.  He came to show us how to live.  He did not say that believing in him and following him would give us warm, fuzzy feelings.  In fact, he said that sometimes it would give us the exact opposite, that sometimes people would look down on us and criticize us for following him.  But he said it would be worth it, because his death would provide the way for salvation and eternal life for all of us.

If you enjoy listening to Christmas music in October and watching Christmas movies on Halloween, that’s fine.  It’s not a sin.  But don’t let that be all Christmas means to you.  If it is, you’re cheating yourself.  Christmas is about the birth of the Jesus Christ.  If we accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, we will get salvation and eternal life.  And that beats a warm, fuzzy feeling every time.