Worth Celebrating Every Day
I think Christmas is a little overrated.
Hear me out; this is coming from someone who enjoys Christmas. I like Christmas music, I like driving around town and seeing decorations, I like sitting by the lighted Christmas tree. But what really matters about Christmas?
The proper Christian answer is that it’s about the birth of Jesus, and then after that it’s about family or friends or giving. You know, the “reason for the season.”
Truly, family and friends and giving should be top of the list in our lives, and the birth of Jesus changes everything.
But shouldn’t those be the things we celebrate every single day?
What if the things that we say are important enough to have their own holiday are actually important enough to have a place in the fabric of our daily lives? If gratitude is so important, shouldn’t we be forming a daily habit of giving thanks? If the birth of Christ is so important, shouldn’t we be in awe of that every day of our lives?
And don’t even get me started on Easter – the celebration of the Savior who defeated death should be in every breath we take, not one Sunday a year.
This is not to be cynical about Christmas, this is to be stubbornly uncynical about every other day.
Whether you feel like this is “the most wonderful time of the year,” or you’re struggling because this is a hard time of year for you, may I suggest that maybe you’re putting too much of your hope in the basket of one season, or even one day, trying to get something out of it that it can’t deliver?
We are going to wake up every day into a broken world ruled by a good God, and there will be seasons when one of those realities is more obvious to you than others. But regardless of that, you get to choose every day whether you’re going to walk in the hope or the darkness.
It doesn’t matter what season of your life it is, or what season of the year, that’s a choice you get to make every day. And if you expect things to be more joyful just because the calendar says it’s December 25th, more often than not you’re going to be disappointed.
But what if you look for that joy in every single day? A big Thanksgiving meal is good, but so is a cold turkey sandwich on a Tuesday in August. Unwrapping presents on Christmas morning is fun, but it’s also great when a family member spontaneously comes home from the grocery store with your favorite snack.
Personally, I’ve found that I have more joy in Christmas when my joy doesn’t depend on Christmas. My favorite part of Christmas is sitting in my house alone by the lighted tree, sipping hot cocoa and reading a good book.
If that sounds shallow, I’m okay with that. I’m choosing to treat Christmas as a good gift from God, a simple pleasure to be enjoyed without all the pressure of spiritual significance.
The things that are truly significant – the birth of the Savior, God made flesh to live a perfect life and then die and rise again so that we could have eternal life with Him – that is for every day.
When we live in that reality, every day is sacred. Every day is a holy day.
Also known as a holiday.