Celebrating Christmas, now

I think the number one best thing about having a month of Advent, is that all the crazy, get-ready-for-Christmas stuff, doesn't rule our lives. I was thinking today, in church as we sang my favorite carols, that most people have left Christmas behind. Who else sang carols today in service? We've just begun! It's only the fourth day of Christmas! Rejoice....celebrate...He is born! This will continue until January 5th when we celebrate 12th night, a symbolic arrival of the three kings. We won't even have our Christmas pageant until then.

We spent the last month, in preparation. Advent is the season of preparing for Christ's birth, and we read the bible verses that anticipate the birth of Christ...Isaiah, Judges, Malachi, Numbers. Joseph Bottum says "the disappearance of Advent seems especially disturbing—for it’s injured even the secular Christmas season: opening a hole, from Thanksgiving on, that can be filled only with fiercer, madder, and wilder attempts to anticipate Christmas." By using Advent, we were able to focus our energy on the reason, the meaning behind Christmas. 

Now, while everyone we know heaves a sigh of relief that this crazy season is over (back to life), our little family, our little parish, is letting go of Advent, and able to celebrate Christmas. We're able to celebrate the annunciation, we can focus on Mary sacrificing her life's choices to follow the will of the Lord. We can focus on Joseph, who as he accepted the ridicule and shame of his friends as he also followed God's will, as he accepted his pregnant bride.  We can worship a Lord who was willing to send Jesus to earth, to suffer as a human, to teach us all the way, the truth and the light. 

Merry Christmas to all!