The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20
Christmas has become quite the production. First, you have to drag the decoration boxes out of storage. Then as you’re unpacking the decorations, you have to find a place to put all of your other stuff so that you have somewhere to put the decorations. Once all the decorations are in place, you have to put the boxes back in storage again. If that weren’t enough, there’s always one string of lights on the tree that doesn’t work, so you have to spend an hour or two trying to figure out which of those little demon bulbs is causing the problem. It makes you want to put up a Charlie Brown kind of tree.
Then comes buying gifts for everyone. Of course, there’s the family you have to buy something for whether they need it or not or whether you like them or not. Add to that the names of people you have to buy something for because they got you something last year. I’m telling you, buying the right gifts has become such a production that it’s tempting to just give everyone cash. It’s always the right color, and it always fits. Better yet, why doesn’t everybody just trade cash? That way, Christmas won’t cost you a dime, and everybody will be happy.
Now that the gifts are done, there’s the multitude of Christmas parties, school Christmas concerts, Christmas programs at church, family Christmas get-togethers, and more – none of which you would dare miss. And what would Christmas be like without driving around looking at the lights on other people’s houses so that you can either steal their ideas for next year or gloat that yours looks so much better than theirs?
I’m telling you Christmas is a production. It’s gotten to the place where you practically need to hire a director like you do for weddings, complete with spread sheets and duty rosters. It reminds me of Mrs. Armstrong in the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She and all the church ladies were completely stressed out about getting the annual Christmas pageant ready. They were going to have that production ready even it if killed them, and everybody had better get happy about it.
Stop. Christmas doesn’t have to be a production. In fact, the way many of us go about celebrating it may be the very thing that’s keeping us from experiencing what Christmas is all about. Why? Because we’re too frantic to hear anything from God.
Think about the first Christmas story. It’s amazing just how many people heard from God at one point or the other. First, it was Mary who heard from God that she had been chosen to give birth to the long awaiting Messiah. Then Joseph heard from God not to abandon Mary, because this baby was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit and not due to some unholy tryst with another guy.
On top of that, you read where the magi heard from God as they pondered the Hebrew scriptures which motivated them to go find the Christ child. Finally, there’s the shepherds who certainly heard from God in a mighty way as an angel army came to announce the birth of the Savior.
Obviously, these were special moments when God was speaking in unusual ways. I don’t think we should expect to hear an angelic choir while we are keeping watch over our Christmas trees by night. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t hear from God. We can. We just have to get out of the Christmas production routine long enough to actually hear him.
But the truth is that most of are just like Mrs. Armstrong. We can’t hear from our friends much less from God, because we’re too busy keeping the holiday production going. We’re so consumed with yip yapping about our personal Christmas pageant that God would practically have to break our leg to get our attention. But then again, that didn’t work for Mrs. Armstrong either.
In other words we have to want to hear from God in order to hear from Him. It means that we will need to step out of the Christmas pageant business from time to time and still our souls before Him. Then and only then will we find true praise for God rising in our hearts. Sadly, that’s one of the last things that happens when we’re caught up in pageant mode. It’s more like words of tension and stress than praise. How full of praise can we be when were rushing about trying to manage our annual Christmas production? Not much.
There’s no praise in our mouths when we’re fighting mall traffic to stand in long lines to spend money we don’t have to buy things that people don’t really need. There’s no celebration rising in our hearts because we’ve added five more pounds from another holiday season of over indulgence. And there’s no joy bursting from our souls knowing that when this year’s Christmas production is over that we’re going back to the same life we had before it started.
But what a different picture we see in the real Christmas pageant. Everybody’s praising God. Mary praised God for his gracious choice of her to give birth to the Savior. The shepherds left glorifying and praising God for being included in God’s redemptive plan. And the magi were filled with exceeding great joy and praise when they saw the star guiding them to the baby Jesus.
Why was that? It’s because they weren’t consumed with a managing a production. As a result, they caught the wonder of what was happening before them.
And so can we. Think about it. When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we’re talking about God becoming one of us. The redeemer of the world, the savior of all was lying in a feeding trough. This little baby born of Mary was at the same time the precious Son of God. He was the Lamb of God. The Lion of Judah. The seed of Abraham. The Holy One.
When we step away from our Christmas production long enough to take that in, our hearts will be filled with praise as well. If that happens, it will without a doubt be one of the best Christmas lessons ever.