“Jesus is the reason for the season”
”Keep Christ in Christmas”
There’s so much hype about this within Christian circles
during the Christmas season-bumper stickers, magnets, signs, cards, ornaments.
It’s EVERYWERHE during Christmas. But why do we only want Jesus to be the
reason for the Christmas season? Why do we only want to keep Him in Christmas?
It’s like we put Him in this little box and make sure to focus on Him when
we’re “supposed to”. And then when the season is over, we take down our signs,
magnets, ornaments and put Him away till next year. Then the cycle starts all
over again.
Maybe if we remembered this more than just during Christmas,
we wouldn’t have such a hard time getting through the rest of the year.
Maybe if we kept Jesus out all year long, we wouldn’t forget
that He is “Emmanuel-God with us”. Emmanuel doesn’t mean that He’s only with us
during the Christmas season. Emmanuel is the name given to Him-who was, who is,
and who is to come.
So if Jesus is Emmanuel, that means He’s more than just
Christmas. He’s more than just a season.
Maybe we could take it further and remember that He is the
reason for EVERY season-spring, summer, winter, fall-and our LIFE seasons. What
if we put as much energy into making Jesus the focus of the Christmas season
into Him being the focus in whatever season we are in, in life! It’s all about
Him anyway-“For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Jesus is IN EVERY SEASON. He is EMMANUEL. And the reason
Emmanuel is in every season is so that we can know Him more in everything we
face. Philippians 3:8 says,
“What is more, I consider everything a loss
compared to the surpassing
greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose
sake I have lost
all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ…”
In every season, whether joyful or full of sorrow, we always learn more about
who Jesus is, His character and His sovereignty. In every season, something is
lost in order to gain something new. What we gain when we keep Jesus IN every
season and the REASON for the season, is knowing Him in a greater, more
personal way than we ever have before. Every time we know Jesus in a greater
way, we become more like Him and we lose what we knew before-who we were
before. But the beauty is, is that it is replaced with something so much more
beautiful.
He shows Himself to us in ways we may have otherwise missed
if we kept Him packed away, only bringing Him out “at the right time”. NOW is
the right time to bring Him out-KEEP Him out. HE is the reason for every
season…IN every season.
To know Christ is the greatest thing. Nothing compares to
it. So, why would we only want Him during Christmas?
