A Sunday evening earlier this month, I was driving on La Grange Road, through downtown La Grange. I was admiring the small businesses with their Christmas decorations and the Christmas lights that lit up the short 1/3 mile distance of the busy street. Both sides of the street had families and people shopping or I assume just enjoying the cold evening and the sights. As I was trying to appreciate all that was happening around me on the street, I was listening to one of my favorite Christmas albums that I have on my iPhone, “A Fresh Aire Christmas” by Mannheim Steamroller – 1998. While all this was happening, it really made me feel like the Christmas season was here and I thought to myself, is this what it means to feel “The Christmas spirit”?
Our secular culture for many different seasons, in many different ways, does a really good job to display, to let you hear, smell and even taste things that are appreciated and anticipated at Christmas. Is all this done to create or stimulate the feeling that many consider “The Christmas spirit”?
We have all heard of the term “The Christmas spirit”, but how would describe it? If you do a Google search, you will find a numerous articles about “The Christmas Spirit”; a 2013 movie, images, videos and even songs that come up under this title.
If you do a Google search of “The spirit of Christmas”, you will find a 2015 movie with that title, also a five-minute video clip on YouTube of the Ray Charles song called “The Spirit of Christmas” or a Johnny Cash spoken song with the same title. If you keep searching you can also find articles such as “How Do I Get Into The Christmas Spirit?”, “Do You Have The Christmas Spirit?” or “Killing The Christmas Spirit”. The list goes on and on.
What is it that gets you into “the Christmas Spirit”? Is it images of Christmas? Is “the Christmas spirit” sung about in certain songs such as, “Silent Night”, “Joy to the World”, “Jingle Bells” or “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree”? How about food? The thoughts of those delicious cookies, breads, and eggnog (without the rum) part of “the Christmas spirit”? Or is it the Christmas decorations, lights and smells? For some, getting into “the Christmas spirit” could be shopping and wrapping presents.
Is “The Christmas spirit” found in an image, a decoration, a cookie, a song or in a special event at church? Or, are these only the cultural and customary expressions of the Christmas season we all expect to experience?
As Christians, there is nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas as long as we keep it in the right perspective with our relationship with God and His Word. As we do, it will always help us have everything we do in relation to Christmas in the right priority in our lives.
For some “the Christmas spirit” is a felt emotion, which is the motivation of why they do and what they do during the Christmas holiday season. However, we really need to examine our hearts and ask ourselves a serious question. Is who Christ is in me and my relationship with Him the primary reason and motivation of what I do during the Christmas holiday season?
Almost all who have an intimate relationship with Christ Jesus can quote from memory John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
What does reading, understanding and personally experiencing this truth do to you and how does this truth influence “the Christmas spirit” you feel? Is Christ in your life the source and motivation for your Christmas spirit above anything else?
Knowing that God gave His son Christ Jesus to die for us even when we did not deserve it, should give a Christian the Christ centered motivation, purpose and expression of “the Christmas spirit”.
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) Ephesians 2:4-5 NLT
Did you ever realize that in a heart, mind and the life of a Christian, God’s love for the world and us should be what “the Christmas spirit” is all about? 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10
In a secular person’s mind and life who does not know about God’s love and or have experienced in their life this eternal truth, will have a different motivation and expression of “the Christmas spirit” they feel. This is very evident in what we see, hear and experience about Christmas in the secular culture we live in today.
My prayer is that you and I be an expression of “The True Christmas Spirit”, the Spirit of God who is in us to the world who so urgently needs Him.
Pastor John
“We have not received the spirit of the world
but the Spirit who is from God,
that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
1 Corinthians 2:12
