Keeping Christmas All the Year

We should never tire of celebrating Christmas. Yes, it is natural to tire of the sugar overload and clutter of decorations and constant activity. But that is not what Charles Dickens meant when he said, “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.” No, he meant honoring the good news that the Christ child brought.

What is this good news? As Brian McLaren describes it, “…the story of God’s work in history has never been about escaping Earth and going up to heaven. It has always been about God descending to dwell among us.”

We don’t have to wait to go to heaven to be with God — God’s presence is already here among us. We don’t have to wait for Christ’s light to illumine our darkness — that light already shines within us. We don’t have to wait for a gate to open to enter the kingdom of God — it is already open to anyone whose heart is open to love others.

This good news calls for a change of perspective. Hard as it is to believe, we don’t have to wait until we die to be with God; God has already come to us. We need only ask for Wisdom, who “passes into holy souls from age to age, producing friends of God and prophets” (Wisdom 7:27) to open our eyes and hearts to God’s presence, where we will never tire of celebrating the good news of Christmas.