Celebrating the Gift of Jesus

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."
‭‭– Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV

What happens in your family after someone says, "Let's celebrate"? In our house, it usually means we're picking up a couple steaks, something sugary, watching a good movie, or standing around a fire. I've noticed that "celebrating" is inextricably tied to "consuming." We CANNOT celebrate something without consuming something. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The difference is that our culture already consumes so much that during a holiday, our consumerism rises to frenzied heights as we attempt to infuse as much meaning as possible into Jesus' birth. We buy, and eat, and go, and stack family tradition on family tradition as if the more we do, the more we will understand Jesus' sacrifice.

I think the opposite may be true. In "The Advent of the Lamb of God," a Christmas devotional by Russ Ramsey, he writes: "Never did [Jesus] abandon his purpose for coming, which was to die for a world of spirit-poor outsiders as the Lamb of God who takes their sin away. Jesus was born poor. He lived poor. And he died poor for the sake of his people. This boy had come into the world in the same way he would leave it: out in the open, among the outcast, poor, and despised, but driven by one purpose - to ransom captive Israel (pg. 143)."

This Christmas, let's be thankful for how much we have and how little we need to truly celebrate Jesus' gift.