It occurred to me today that we are all just looking for a little something right about now.

I am normally diametrically opposed to the thought that Christmas should be celebrated, as part of a larger celebration of ‘the holidays’, any earlier in the year than is absolutely necessary. This opposition isn’t any ‘Bah! Humbug!’ kind of a feeling; I love the Christmas season as much as any average person, I would imagine. Rather, this sentiment comes from the feeling that we’re not really celebrating Christmas when we decide to ramp up the machine of carnal festivity a little bit earlier every year; we’re just wanting to be sure that we all have enough time to do all of our holiday shopping or that we will get as many opportunities to gorge ourselves at umpteen holiday get-togethers over the course of an increasingly longer period of time.

In my mind, Christmas doesn’t need to be big, if you’re celebrating it properly. And it certainly doesn’t need to start the day after Halloween.

Along these lines, my family has created some holiday traditions, in keeping with a timeline that is respectful of a proper chronological scope for Christmas in general. One of these traditions is the decorating of our home on the day after Thanksgiving. While others call this day Black Friday, we call it Green Friday in our house, for it’s the day when we get out the greenery and the decorations for another Christmas season together. We cooperate –to greater or lesser extents– to deck the halls with the knick-knacks and the baubles as an official start to the Christmas season each year.

A couple of days ago, my daughter asked me if we could decorate early.

I about lost my mind.

Rather, she and I had a discussion about why she was feeling like decorating early. We (I) talked about the tradition of Green Friday and the importance of traditions in general. We (I) talked about how we can’t have the Christmas decorations up for too long because it makes them feel less special by the time the season is over. But, when I finally allowed her to talk, what she told me became the foundation of this piece that I’m writing right now.

She said, “Dad, this has been a crappy year. But I think that Christmas will fix it right up. I don’t want to wait for that.”

And I thought to myself, “She’s right. Christmas does fix that right up.”

* * *

Between the period of time when the last few of the twelve minor prophets were delivering the messages of God to His people, near the end of the Old Testament of the Bible, despite the fact that it was becoming more and more obvious that they weren’t listening, between that period of time and the birth of Jesus, four hundred years passed. When you turn the last page of Malachi to the first page of Matthew, you are glossing over four hundred years of history. And, from what I understand, you’re not bypassing any highlights in that single page turn. The Israelites continued to find themselves at the mercy of foreign powers because of their waywardness, and it was probably a pretty desperate time.

Then, the first Christmas! Finger foods galore and early shopper specials and radios playing carols twenty-four/seven and expensive electric bills from lighting all of the decorations on the house for six weeks.

No, wait. None of that.

A manger. A stable. Bethlehem.

The Israelites, under the dominion of whichever foreign power happened to be ruling over them at the moment (The Roman Empire, for example), were disheartened and forlorn. They were seeking a Messiah to deliver them from the hands of their enemies. Of course, they’d forgotten their history lessons, forgotten the fact that God had promised to be their god if they would remain faithful to him.

They were in the hands of foreign enemies –one after another after another– because they wouldn’t be subject to their God.

Have you ever known someone who ends up in the midst of consequences OF THEIR OWN CHOOSING and they seem upset about it?

I’ll bet you have.

That’s the thing about Christmas –> Jesus Christ didn’t show up like a conquering king. That’s how He slid in under the radar.

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone living in twenty-first century America? Hello? Anyone?

If you don’t see the similarities…

* * *

Something tells me that my daughter isn’t the only one who is wanting the holiday season to swoop in and take our mind off of our circumstances. In a year that has so very many people just clawing and scratching their way toward 2021, toward a future that isn’t so bleak, toward the escape that leads away from all of this mess; in a year like this one, we need Christmas more than ever, it seems.

Christmas will fix everything.

But, if the holidays are just a distraction, if they’re just a diversion to help us to finish out the rest of this year, in the hopes that the next year isn’t going to be as bad, then –when the holidays go– we will just be left in the same place that we’re in now, with nothing left to distract us from the reality of all of this.

I think Christmas can do better than that.

You see, like it or not, Christmas is about Christ. It’s about His coming to a world that didn’t even have room for his surrogate mother and father to be able to find a place to stay at the point of His birth.

And, just as it was then, so it is still to this day: humanity doesn’t realize how badly in need they truly are.

They don’t have room for Him.

Or maybe, this time around –in 2020– we do. If not fully, at least more significantly so.

I mean, it’s been that kind of a year.

How long has it been since you’ve had a Christmas where you found yourself at the end of a rope? How long has it been since the world around you appeared to be out of your control, and also out of everyone else’s control, as well?

How long has it been since you were laid low?

Jesus is laid low every Christmas.

If you are longing for something more than tinsel and jingle bells, if you are needing something that is more than a month (or two) of distracted merriment, if you are hoping for an escape from this crazy world, just remember…

The wise still seek Him.