Christmas Eve

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Thursday, December 24, 2015
Megann Graf




Christmas Eve

I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas!  If you’re like me, this week has been full of last minute preparations, frantic last minute purchases, and lots of chocolate and caffeine.  I don’t why it seems to happen every year, but no matter how prepared I try to be, there’s always a few things that get lost until the last minute.  I always hope to be better at it the next year, but alas, I am not.  That’s why I like this little quote above from “Scrooged.”  It ends with “…For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people we always hoped we would be.”  I started thinking about what that meant.  Am I who I want to be?  Am I being that for the right reasons? 

On Christmas Eve, lots of people are being nice, so it makes it easier to put on a smile and be nicer.  But, the truth is, some of those people will be going through things this next year that will make it very hard for them to smile.  Can I still be nice to them then?   What about the people who are hurting this year, and they are just putting on a good face to go along with everyone else.  I pray that they don’t hope to be people who can hide their pain from others.  See, the problem with this, is that it’s not real.  It’s the big mistake we can sometimes make when we think of that first Christmas.  That it was soft and sweet and nice and perfect.  And, that’s how we want to wrap up religion, in a nice and tidy bow that makes everybody feel good and doesn’t push the envelope too much.  If that’s what we hope to be, then I have to disagree with that quote.

God came into a broken world to get right in the midst of all our pain and all of our shame and all of our hurt.  He doesn’t hope for us to be people who put on a good face for the sake of looking nice.  He wants us to be real.  He came and lived on this earth and suffered for us, so that we CAN be real.  There’s a reason why we have a hard time living up to the “perfect person” standard all year long.   We aren’t perfect.  We aren’t always happy.  We aren’t always nice.  We are in desperate need of a Savior.   We are in desperate need of grace and mercy and love.  That’s why a baby was born on this night so many years ago. 

Now, don’t take this as a pass to go out tonight and complain about everything that’s not great in your life.  On the contrary, go, be nice, and smile.  But don’t do it just to put on a good face.  Don’t do it because it’s what everyone else does.  Do it because you are celebrating the birth of hope!  Let’s celebrate the Savior.  Let’s celebrate the hope that he brought.  Don’t be the person you hope to be, just be the person who has hope!  Hope in a Savior, whose name is Jesus.  He is Christ the Lord! 

Merry Christmas!!

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