The Christmas Crazy

Photo by Mallorie Terranova

Christmas can bring out the crazy in people.

You’ve probably seen it out on the roads this week or in your local post office… everyone rushing around trying to achieve their holiday hopes and dreams before the clock strikes December 25th. Somehow, our commercialized American Christmas has become an unattainable image of perfectly wrapped presents under a perfectly decorated tree. There are no arguments or disappointments in this image. Only a crackling fire and everyone around it smiling. So when this image is not met, people can act kind of crazy. It makes sense actually. There are more things that are not right in the world than we can count. Just look at your own family. Just look at your own heart.

But the good news is that this “crazy” points to a deeper reality. It points to all our unmet expectations and longings. It highlights everything in our own hearts, families, and the world that doesn’t align with this image of perfection. We are not meant to be satisfied by these things the world offers.

Thankfully, Advent—or what we call “Christmastime”—isn’t about perfection, it’s about longing.

The first Christmas was very far from our cozy Christmas tree and crackling fire image. It was messy. It highlighted the brokenness and fragility of humanity. A poor young girl giving birth in a dirty stable, because there was no room in the inn.

I love the image in Psalm 126 of the Lord bringing the captives back to Zion. I think it’s the perfect image for Christmas.

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.

Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”

The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, LORD, like streams in the Negev.

Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.

Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.

Imagine captives returning from Babylon to their homeland. They had nothing. Their home had been destroyed. They had been slaves for the last seventy years. And yet, they had hope. They had joy. Not because everything had worked out perfectly for them. It clearly hadn’t. They had joy because of their future hope, because they knew their Deliverer had come and was leading them home. It would take time to see things fully restored. But they still rejoiced in the midst of their disappointments, because their King had come to redeem them.

This is an image we can hold onto this Christmas.

Our King has come and is bringing us home, but we are not home yet. Our Christmas cards may present the message: “We have it all together. There are no unmet expectations, longings, or sibling arguments going on here.” (I personally was yelling at our dogs the whole time we took our photos). But the reality is we are all pilgrims, feeling the weight of all that is wrong in the world, in our families, and in our hearts. We are pilgrims, yet not without hope. We can sing joyfully along our journey, because our hope is in our Savior who came for us and will come again. We aren’t home yet.

So it’s ok if that one family member acts extra crazy at Christmas or if that one family member is you. It’s ok to feel sad about the things that are sad. Christmastime is about the JOY of the world coming, but it’s also about WAITING for His second coming when He will wipe every tear from every eye and “make all the sad things come untrue” (Sally Lloyd-Jones).

Until that Day, we will still experience lack and longing, yet not without hope. So when you start feeling the weight of the world this Christmas, you can LOOK to the One who has already come, is here with us now, and who will come again. Jesus, the light of the world, our Emmanuel, is leading us home. As it says in one of my favorite Christmas songs, “ the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”

This Christmas, let your longings bring you closer to Jesus, because He wants to lead you home to Him. Home to Joy, home to Peace, home to Hope. Let your Christmas crazy point you to the ultimate Source of all your hopes and dreams. Though things are far from perfect, at Christmas, we sing.

Merry Christmas!

-hannah