Christmas Joy & the Birth of Love


Chandlers take Christmas seriously. I grew up thinking it was normal for the entire family to rush to the garage to witness the descent of Christmas decor from the attic. We have a home video of my dad and brother handing boxes down the ladder. The camera pans around the garage to children growing giddier as they sense the Christmas bomb ticking, about to explode all over our house. The credit must go to my parents, who added substance to the Christmas bomb over the years. They knew how to inject enthusiasm into every part of Christmas and quickly cement each chapter of the process into our book of Christmas traditions.

Father and Mother Christmas
Here's the shortlist of our family Christmas traditions:
I am sure I did not cover all of our traditions, but that there is enough to expose the absurd breadth of our Christmas observances. It does crack me up to watch Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation, because some of his mannerisms remind me of my dad (please don't take offense, pops). Not Chevy's air-headed side, but his crazed faces and zeal for certain parts of the holiday.

See?
Joy. It's found all over the country during the Christmas season, and those of us who know it hate to think of anyone without it during the holidays. One of my oldest, yet most vivid memories is of being a part of the Elf Louise project in San Antonio. Elf Louise collects toys and assigns volunteer Santas to deliver presents to needy families in San Antonio. My dad dressed up as Santa and we were his elves. I remember being bummed that they were out of elf costumes for us to wear. Delivering gifts to kids who only received one present, without the sparkle layout on a plush couch, affected me. My brother continued the tradition and donned the Santa suit when he was fresh out of college. A photo was taken of him giving a gift to a little girl and her face is filled to the brim with delight, completely surprised with joy. Just envisioning her smile makes me teary-eyed.


I never needed a bounty of gifts. I grew accustomed to it, but so many people grow accustomed to nothing. I grew up hearing Jesus was the perfect gift, but I do not know that I ever stomached that simple, profound truth. Santa showing up at that little girl's house with a present is a fluffy, bearded metaphor for God showing up in our lives. We may have been used to life without Him and understood others had faith in their lives, but we got along fine without it. And that was fine. Then he hands us the gift of his son. He says, "Here. He's yours. For you to enjoy. You can shelf him. Or welcome him with overwhelming joy. He loves you so much. He will die for you. Even if you put him on the shelf. He'll love you from the shelf, until you're ready to receive his enduring love."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:37-39
 
   

I'm not sure what the mood was like in that stable 2,000 years ago. I'd guess there was a pulsating joy in the air. We could argue all of the Christmas traditions I rattled off were distractions from celebrating the birth of Christ, but I'd say Jesus would have a great time at his birthday party. Love, Himself, is personified in each and everyone's Christmas season. C.S. Lewis powerfully describes God's love in his book, The Four Loves:

“God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing - or should we say "seeing"? there are no tenses in God - the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath's sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is a "host" who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and "take advantage of" Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves.”

The inventor of all loves. So when you feel your heart growing while watching It's A Wonderful Life or you look around at the miraculous gathering of loved ones, know that He invented what you're feeling and is the epicenter of the merriment. You cannot get away from Love if you try, Ebenezer! Merry Christmas to all!