Today is Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas. For most people Christmas ended early on Boxing Day while fighting over a Blu-Ray player or Flat-screen TV in the crowded aisles of Best Buy. Christmas seems to set us up for disappointment—well, at least the Christmas we’ve come to accept. A half-dozen Christmas parties, hours in the shopping mall, hours of overtime at work to pay for the Christmas presents, Christmas traditions we may not even like, presents we didn’t want or didn’t need, and expectations that our family gatherings will go off without a hitch... All these things are going to happen and they’re all going to be great because it’s Christmas, right?
But suddenly, Christmas is over and we can’t help but asking, “That’s it? Christmas is over already?” A deeply unsatisfying feeling can set in—all that trouble and now Christmas is over.
Is Christmas ever quite as good as we feel it should be?
Our Christmas was enjoyable because we could return home to Ontario to see family we miss dearly, but it remained unsatisfying. A flu bug was circulating through my in-laws, my wife caught the flu, my wife caught a cold, the rest of the family was sick and tired, there was a mix-up with the gift exchange so someone didn’t get a present, and my wife and I were sleeping on a mattress in the living room. Of course there are far worse Christmas experiences out there, which further shows my point. Christmas can be deeply disappointing, or at least not quite what deep-down we feel it should be.
Christmas should be deeply disappointing though. After all, the gifts, the blow-up lawn decorations, and crying children on mall Santa’s lap miss the point. At Christmas, the world celebrates that God looked upon all the evil, brokenness, and emptiness in his creation, a creation that had rejected him, and yet he did not give up on us. Instead of leaving us to the misery we freely chose, he sent his Son, Jesus, to live the perfect life we could not live and die the death we should have died. Christmas, however, is more than remembering the events of the past; it’s also about anticipating the next stage in God’s plan to deliver us from Satan, sin, and death. Yes, we look back at how God has worked (after all, Christ has already defeated Satan, sin, and death), but not at the cost of forgetting what he is working now. Yes, Jesus has come, but surely he will come again!
The biggest disappointment of Christmas is not the gift we didn’t want, but the gift we have not yet received, the second coming of Jesus. Then all crying will cease, the dead shall be raised, our bodies will no longer be slowly wasting away, and we will see clearly the King of Glory.
Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus.
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