Advent Day 1: December Strikes Again!
It’s true. December’s back. The days of rooting through the attic for lights that don’t work, listening to music that probably never should have been recorded, and receiving Christmas cards from people we don’t remember are here again. We can’t escape it.For numerous reasons, this joyous season, this most wonderful time of the year, has become to many people the most stressful time of the year. The expectation of presents and entertainment coupled with the nauseating advertisements that are literally everywhere you go can be too much for people sometimes. It can be too much for me.At the same time, I love Christmas. This isn’t just some holiday Hallmark invented (like Valentine’s Day) to sell more cards, this is Christmas. This is the time that we celebrate the birth of our saviour. This is the day that God looked out on His people and said, “Enough!” and condescended himself to save us. This is the day the lights turned on, the day the divine and the human united into one man, the day the prophets’ shouts were finally answered. Christmas marks the day salvation came to earth.So what should we do? How do we keep this month sacred without completely avoiding the inevitable craziness that surrounds this daunting month?I’ve been thinking about this a lot this year. Now that I not only have a wife, but a child, it is important to think through how I want to lead my family through the holiday season. If I do nothing, I fear that our Christmas will be like Arnold’s in Jingle All the Way. And we can’t just move.So for the next 24 days counting down to Christmas, I want to explore the different ways we can save Christmas from December. Some posts will be more traditional advent reflections, some will be practical tips on what our families can do to remember what's important with Christmas, some might just be some questions that have struck me and made me think more deeply about this time. Either way, I would love for you to walk with me through this Advent.To start things, of course, I made a Flip video. This was Lauren and I's big present last year from my family so that we could capture every little detail of our new sons life. The video is me playing a Christmas song I wrote a few years ago as I myself struggled through the dichotomy of sacredness and profanity surrounding the Christmas holiday.Christmas is a holiday worth fighting for, it is a holiday that we should look forward to, and it is a holiday that should move us to praise the God who came near![vimeo http://vimeo.com/17363514 w=600&h=400]