Cancel Christmas

What am I on about? Christmas has faded and is already in the past. The last piece of Christmas cake has been eaten. Christmas decs. are away - maybe just a few lights remain to cheer the gloom of January and February. There’s a longing for spring now and new life, so why am I still pondering Christmas?
 
‘Cancel Christmas’ started to pop up around the season in newspapers and newsflashes. Not too obvious, but it was there. Worldwide on the streets too, among the many protesters with their banners, all very troubling and disturbing to see … In many cases the calls were combined with acutely anti-Semitic cries, a dark reaction worldwide to the heartbreaking October 7th attack in Israel, the massacre and kidnapping of over 1,000 mostly Jewish people. So it’s probably not surprising that anti-Christian cries also crept in alongside that. Our Judeo/Christian values are definitely being challenged all around the world. Antisemitism, along with Christian persecution, seems to be on the rise. A rebellion against fundamental biblical and Christian belief, against guiding principles that have rooted and grounded us for so long. Faith itself, watered down to accommodate today’s thinking.
 
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23)
Contend for the faith that was once entrusted to God’s holy people (Jude 1:3)
 
So what with the cry to cancel Christmas? Why does it strike at my heart so hard? And why am I surprised, for I suppose there has already been a push to cancel Christmas in recent years, a nudge to take the word out of our Christmas cards, out of office parties and family celebrations, to replace it with happy holidays or winter feasting. So is it such a bad idea to cancel a bit more?! Is it a tradition that’s just had its day? Tinsel is so hard to find anyway these days now that Woollies and Wilco have both gone. And lametta is just a dream from a distant past. Over eating, over spending, fitting in the rellies. Perhaps Scrooge had it right after all. It’s all humbug.
 
And it’s not an easy time of year for so many - I have not always welcomed it. Making ends meet, affording it all, shopping for gifts, loved ones missing, a hard time for so many which just highlights hardship and heartache.
 
I do actually love the whole season very much, in spite of its difficulties, from the moment the takeaway coffee cups appear with Christmas motifs on them to the moment it’s all over with the turkey gone and when twelfth night has downed the trees and the decs! I’d actually miss it all if it was cancelled. But there are moments every year when I do wonder … what has Christmas become and is it worth all the hype and the stress!?
 
We could cancel some things happily, I think! Make it a bit simpler! But what would we keep? The children’s Nativities, the Carols by Candlelight? We’d have to have some feasting and fun though. So why keep these bits? Because the true reason for Christmas is worthy of that and more. Cancel the stress and pressures but we should not cancel the true reason for the season. JOY TO THE WORLD? … Absolutely! … It’s JESUS! The heart of Christmas that cannot be cancelled. The greatest gift from heaven above. The hope and light of the world, our creator, saviour, redeemer, lover of mankind!!! God loves us so much He was willing to send His son to meet our need and to give us a way back to Him. Worth celebrating.
 
This is a true and trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, THAT CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD to save sinners - of whom I am the worst (1 Timothy 1:15) 
 
I was thinking a lot over Christmas about the way Jesus came into our world - especially about the place He was born. A stable. No one had a chance to sweep it clean, or redecorate the walls, or move a bit of helpful furniture in.
 
I have a Nativity set and every year one of my grandchildren helps me get the little figures out and arrange them accordingly - usually more than slightly muddled, with kings and shepherds mixed up and baby Jesus isn’t always in the manger. One year a miniature Father Christmas had settled his sleigh on the roof. And each year my set falls apart a bit more, falls more and more into a state of disrepair.
 
But Jesus was born into a stable like mine. A place of mess and mayhem and disarray. Probably a bit tumble down. It’s still the place He likes to be. In the stable of our heart and home. Just as we are. He’ll come in - no need to clean up the mess or clear the clutter first. No need to redecorate. Simply invite Him in. The people who passed through the stable on that first Christmas night had their lives transformed as they recognised their Lord and Saviour and knelt before Him. That’s still how it works.
 
It was with such a sense of relief this Christmas, that as I rushed around and worried as usual about how to make it all happen, I realised that I can just open the door of my stable and let Him in. I don’t have to sort myself out first or be in a better frame of mind! Or have every box ticked.
 
Come as we are. He loves to be with us in the midst of everything. He is our peace, our helper, comforter, guide. Bit by bit He will remake, restore and make a new creation of us!
 
If anyone is in Christ Jesus the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! (1 Corinthians 5:17)
 
Cancel Christmas? Only if we dare.
 
As the Angels said, Glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth and goodwill to all men (Luke 2:14)