It could be that I haven’t noticed it as much in the past few years, but it certainly seems like more and more people are decorating for Christmas and playing Christmas music much earlier this year than in years past. It has been kind of interesting overhearing conversations at coffeeshops and stores, in talking with friends, or seeing all the funny memes and rants people go on, all about how “It’s too early for Christmas music!”
Probably mostly all of it is in jest, and I certainly have scratched my head from time to time when I see someone post a picture of their Christmas tree up in the living room, with their kids still eating Halloween candy in the foreground. But it also got me thinking; why do we people of the Christian faith feel like there is only a brief window in the calendar where it is appropriate to celebrate the arrival of the Son of God?
More and more, it seems as though we acquiesce to some notion that Christmastime is only good from Thanksgiving until midnight on December 25. What in our current expression of faith keeps us from living like it is important to us during the other eleven months of the year?
It is striking how quick we are to pull out the festive attitudes for any Christian holiday on a particular date, and then put them away as soon as the day is over with. I’m guilty of it, too.
But as Christians, the celebration of the birth of Christ should be something on our minds every single day; if we are serious about anticipating the arrival of the Son of God, and all that it signifies, then there is a part of all of our hearts that should be singing “Joy to the World” every single day.
And likewise for other holidays. We should always be of a penitent and sacrificial heart, not just during Lent.
We should always feel emboldened by the Holy Spirit, and not just during Pentecost.
Every single day should be a celebration of forgiveness, of redemption, of salvation and of eternal life, not just on Easter Sunday.
All I mean to say is this. To my Sisters and Brothers in the faith: don’t wait, and don’t stop celebrating just because the calendar has turned. We are coming upon a time where the arrival and the presence of Christ are at the forefront of our minds, and that is awesome. But let’s not be too quick to hush up about it. Let it live in you so that sometime next year, maybe on May 9th or August 22nd or October 31, you’ll think about it and hum “Go Tell It On the Mountain.”
Forget the calendar. Let the day live in you year-round, and see what happens when you do.
In the meantime, y’all take care and be good to one another.
J.e.m.
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