Now just 12 more Fridays till Christmas.
12 more Fridays until the candles burn low and we’ll linger, in the twinkling glow of the tree on Christmas Eve, with this aching wonder if we somehow missed the holy wonder of Him in the blur and whirl of it all.
12 more Fridays… till we really wished that we had actually prepared Him more room this year.
I catch an article just yesterday about the release of a new holiday album, “The Worst Christmas Ever” – and this song about a dad who ends up furiously burning the Christmas presents and a whole family Christmas that went sideways in all these tender, painful ways. When does a painful Christmas begin to feel a bit like unwrapping proof of a failing life?
Why begin the count down to Christmas — to only end up counting all the ways we have to do better to earn the gift of Christ?
When did Christmas become a life-audit of whether we are passing at life or failing the very worst?
When did Christmas become an annual performance audit: Do we have enough big gifts to express our love? Do we have a family that is all here and together? Do we have a place to come home to, where we really belong? Do we have happy enough lives, with more than enough joy and wonder and awe?
What if Christmas stopped being an annual life-audit but gave you the gift of annual awe in God?
Why begin the count down to Christmas — to only end up counting all the ways we have to do better to earn the gift of Christ?
I’m still thinking about some worst – or at the very least, complicated — Christmases I too have known, when, not an hour later, our youngest little daughter, asks me, with her notebook open, if she can sing to me this silly rendition of the 12 days of Christmas, her own rift on The Lion King’s Timon and Pumbaa’s Christmas song that she’d been listening to: “On the fifth day of Christmas, my good friends gave to me, five smoking raccoons, four sleeping lions, three porcupines, two snapping crocs, and a rhino in a pear tree.”
“What if Christmas stopped being an annual life-audit but gave you the gift of annual awe in God? “
She’s laughing, a glowing light of her own that I’m happy to keep lingering in, and I’m grinning, asking: “Are you imagining five raccoons with their smoking tails on fire??!?!” — but she can’t answer me, she’s laugh-singing into the next round: “On the sixth day of Christmas….”
And the verses, the days, keep stacking, each verse carrying everything that came before it, till you’re carrying the whole long song, a bit like the way the days of Christmas, the days till Christmas, can feel like a stacking weight, another obligation, another thing to remember, another thing to get right, till you feel like Christmas is a weighty score card of your whole life.
How have we turned the annual celebration of God coming to us… into this annual examination of how well we’re coming through for everyone else?
The presents under the tree become this measure of how well we love.
The plates around the table become this measure of how well we’re liked and how well we are family-ing.
The party over the holidays becomes this measure of how successful we are in all of our days.
And how high do we have to score in our life to earn Christ’s coming?
It was on Christmas day in the 5th century that Augustine asked the gathered weary people to look around at what earned them the Nativity, what performed for the Incarnation, what they had to score to celebrate Christmas, and those questions unfurled his unforgettable answer: “Ask if this were merited; ask for its reason, for its justification, and see whether you will find any other answer but sheer grace.”
“The only way to embrace Christmas is with sheer grace. “
Those words still reverberate countless generations later for God’s people:
The only way to embrace Christmas is with sheer grace.
The only response is exactly what was preached on Christmas Day to King James a hundred years later: “Let us honour this day with our receiving, which He has honoured by His first giving.” (Lancelot Andrewes, Christmas Day sermon, 1610, preached before King James)
God does the first giving – and our invitation is simply to honor God with our fully receiving – fully receiving the Greatest Gift.
That first Christmas, heaven handled the music and lights. The angels spread the cheer & good tidings. And Mary’s focus was to simply gaze into Jesus’ face & ponder these things in her heart.
The first Christmas had one woman who simply received and held Him — and this Christmas is simply about every woman receiving Him — so she can now be held.
That’s Christmas’s invitation:
Your Christmas doesn’t have to prove that everything in your life is right — because Christmas is simply receiving the gift of Him who is your Life & He is making all things right.
“Your Christmas doesn’t have to prove that everything in your life is right — because Christmas is simply receiving the gift of Him who is your Life & He is making all things right.“
All the to-do lists and big plans may remain unfinished. Relationships may be tender or fractured. And the empty chairs over the holidays may break our hearts. But none of those realities change the reality that still God gives us Himself – and we honor Him by simply slowing, and stilling, and savoring the gift of Himself.
Christmas is not your annual review of your life, or your love. Christmas is the announcement that you are already loved — and all there is to do receive the gift of His love.
This Christmas: You get the gift of not having to produce Christmas – but simply receive Christmas.
This Christmas we “don’t want a Christmas we have to buy. Or a Christmas we have to make, or perfect, or perform. What we all want is a Christmas we can hold. A Christmas that holds us, remakes us, revives us. We want a Christmas that whispers in awe and wonder: Jesus.” (The Greatest Gift)
Only 12 Fridays now until Christmas.
And our little girl’s going around the house, singing her hilarious, happy little rendition of the 12 days of Christmas.
And I’m exhaling… smiling… relaxing….
Because there is no deadline by which your life must look good enough for God to come be the gift of sheer grace your heart deeply needs.
Because this Christmas is no longer some annual life-audit…. but about simply receiving the gift of being in wonder of awe of God.
And I start to hum along with our girl, readying my heart in anticipation.
Be ready this Christmas to simply receive Jesus with the new edition of The Greatest Gift
Since its first Christmas, The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas, which was Christian Retailer’s Association’s Best Devotional of the Year, and a New York Times Bestseller, has become this treasured Christmas tradition for hundreds of thousands of readers every year.
Because who doesn’t want to move beyond the hustle and hurry of the season into the holy hush of deeply experiencing the wonder of Jesus…. so come Christmas morning, there’s no missing out on deeply experiencing the greatest gift: Jesus Himself?
With a brand new hardcover deluxe edition, and exquisite artwork throughout, The Greatest Gift is this rare doorway of 25 daily Advent readings that truly make Him room, slow down the whirl of the Christmas season, and make gracious space for the wonder and awe of the sweeping story of God’s love.
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Because ultimately?
We “don’t want a Christmas we have to buy. Or a Christmas we have to make, or perfect, or perform. What we all want is a Christmas we can hold. A Christmas that holds us, remakes us, revives us. We want a Christmas that whispers in awe and wonder: Jesus.”
A FREE WHOLE LOVE-STORY Ornament for you!
As a thank you for ordering the beautiful new edition of The Greatest Gift, I’m tucking this little gift right into your hands: an exquisite, double-sided WHOLE LOVE STORY ornament, hand-painted just for you by my daughter-in-love, Aurora. (!!!)
And there’s something especially meaningful about this ornament:
At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus — but that’s not where the story ends.
One side invites you to celebrate the wonder of His coming at Christmas. Then, when Easter draws near, simply flip and tuck it differently to reveal the rest of the story — His life, His love, the cross, and the joy of resurrection.
It’s the same beautiful journey we make through these two books: The Greatest Gift walks us through the sweeping story of God’s love leading to the birth of Jesus, and Loved to Life walks with Jesus through the Gospel of John, all the way to the cross and resurrection.
From the cradle to the cross to the empty tomb — it’s all one great Love Story.
My hope is that this little ornament becomes part of your celebrations year after year: one side displayed at Christmas, the other at Easter — a small, beautiful reminder of the whole story of Jesus.
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Our friends at the independent book store, Baker Book House created The Whole Love-Story bundle for you right here, : The Greatest Gift and Loved to Life — telling the story from the cradle to the cross, to resurrection and new life!
Give the Christmas gift to your neighbors & friends that walks them through Christmas, and right up to Easter, so they experience of the whole love-story of Jesus!
So come Christmas morning — you haven’t missed Him, but unwrapped the Greatest Gift you’ve always yearned for — more of Him.
