How Does One Prepare for Christmas?

Putting up the Christmas tree was a huge part of getting ready for Christmas when I was growing up.  My family always cut down a real tree and brought it home.  The hardest part of getting the tree ready for Christmas was stringing the lights. 

Most of you have probably have strung lights on your trees.  Christmas lights show that Christ, who is the Light of the world, has come into the world – a world filled with the darkness of sin.  We call them “Christmas lights.” But sometimes they don’t make light!

Each year when you get out your Christmas lights, some of them are burned out.  On some strings, if one light is burned out, no lights turn on.  So you either have to buy a new string of lights or remove the lights that don’t work and replace them with new bulbs.  Sometimes replacing bulbs can take hours of time.

That means you have to test each bulb by plugging it into the socket.  See, this one works, so we keep it.  This one doesn’t light, so we throw it away.  And so on.  We keep testing the bulbs until finally the string lights brilliantly.

Most of us are preparing our homes for Christmas.  We give and receive gifts, have parties, send Christmas cards, sing Christmas song, have special foods, enjoy special family gatherings.  But how many of these things help you see Christmas as the coming of Jesus, our Savior, into the world?  Do you do these things because others do them or because you think you have to do them?  Or do they really help us understand the purpose of Christ’s coming to us?

Think of each of the Christmas customs you observe in your homes as a light bulb on a string of Christmas lights.  Check each one to see if it works.  Does buying gifts make you happy to share with others?  Is it a way of showing the love Jesus has given you?  In that case, it is a Christmas light that works. Continue to give presents.

Or does it make you unhappy to spend money for gifts and cards?  Do you give gifts because you feel obligated to do so?  Then your giving is not a Christmas light.  Throw it out.  Do Christmas parties make you happy?  Can you feel the joy of sharing Jesus with others?  Or do you gripe because you have to work so hard to get ready for the party?  Does receiving gifts or sending Christmas cards make you thankful, or do they make you wonder why you didn’t receive more?

Talk these things over with your family.  Then plan a Christmas that is filled with lights that work – lights that show the love of Jesus to you and to others!

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