Christmas Love

 

May the joy of the season envelop your hearts and minds this holiday and may the love of Christ be evident in your lives, as we set out to remember and celebrate the birth of Christ.  This sounds like an incantation that I would have heard at the beginning of the Christmas season in church growing up.  I’m sure many still hear something very similar.  This year, however, though moments can be peaceful, and joy can be present at times, the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas was characterized by somber moments and questions as we watched my husband’s father slip away towards eternity with Jesus.  

Having put him to rest on a Monday, we now seek to settle our hearts and minds towards the God that is love on a Christmas Eve Wednesday. It is important to recognize that in the midst of a season characterized by joy many of us still deal with things that keep us from shifting our perspective towards the Lord.  It can take a focused moment and a bit of effort to sit in a quiet space and feel the presence of a God who is peace, hope, joy, love.  Our advent wreath symbolizes the qualities of God we seek to focus on throughout the season.  The Christ Candle we light on Christmas Eve represents that God is all these things in ONE.  

On this Christmas Eve, we were reminded that sometimes the word of God can be illuminated in a way that, in hindsight, feels as though it should have been obvious. But it takes a moment of looking at things differently to see it.  While there are so many places that we can encounter this, Paul's love chapter is a great example.  If we do not have love, we can have and do all manner of things and still not see the workings of God in our lives. This love is Agape love, a Greek word for a selfless, unconditional, and sacrificial love that is given without expectation of return.  The transformation of the reading of this scripture comes when we shift perspective to view God’s character within the description of love in the love chapter.  Listening to service, this shift and fresh focus was greatly welcomed. 

Interestingly, the task put to us on this night resembled the conversation my husband and I had on the drive to dinner on the evening we'd said goodbye to his father.  I had brought up my quest to seek not just what the stories of the Bible seemed to reveal helpful to my daily life, but also the stories as detective clues to the character of God himself.  How does He respond to his disobedient children?  Why does he give free will?  Doesn’t he become disappointed too?  And most of all, does he ask us to be that which he is not also first?  The example that always sticks with me is that God asks us to BE steadfast, but also multiple times the text also says that HE, GOD is steadfast.  

In the love chapter, we are reminded that “love is patient, love is kind.”  Remember, that the Bible tells us GOD IS LOVE.  The experiment here was to replace the words LOVE with GOD.  God is patient, God is kind, God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud…God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs…God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  If God is all these things, we know that we also are asked to love and be these things as well.  Of course we will stumble, but the bar is set.  

Not only are we called to be love, just like God, but God wants us to shift our perspective and see ourselves as someone worthy of his love.  In this loud and busy life, too many people suffer discontentment, anxiety, loneliness, and depression.  Anxiousness and depression often come from a place of feeling unworthy or not good enough.  But God gives us the right to be called children of God. We have been chosen to walk in His love.  When we choose God, and acknowledge the sacrifice made in our place, our debt is paid in the courts of heaven. We are valuable enough to be defended in heaven because our debt has already been paid.

Someday we will see this clearly,  but until that day comes, we depend on the love of Christ to live with a shift in perspective, looking for the pieces we've missed and the character of God in the familiar words we've read over and over. 

God loves you and isn't angry at you.  He sees you trying,  he sees you loving, he sees you aching, he sees you celebrating,  and he is there in those moments wrapping you in love and grace.