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Home For Christmas
Christmas
Celebrations and Our Longing for Heaven
By
Enjoy this guest post by
writer Ruth Wood, editor of Comfort Cafe
The Secret Longings of Christmas
“Bah
Humbug!” you say. “I may love
Jesus, but you can have these commercial Christmases. And if I hear one more
sappy rendition of Frosty the Snowman, I’m going to lose my mind!”
Over the years I’ve been troubled by the increasing
secularization of Christmas, by the distortion and even outright rejection of
the true meaning of the season.
But last year I had an epiphany. As I shopped, I couldn’t help
but marvel at all the festive decorations in the stores — everywhere displays
glittered in gold, silver, holly red, pine green.
I was struck by the sheer beauty and splendor of it all.
Driving home I passed one house after another decorated to the
hilt with twinkling lights, Santa and his reindeer or smiling snowmen.
The thought occurred to me, “It looks like the whole world is throwing a
party!” And this got me thinking…
A deeper meaning.
Why would a society that has essentially rejected the babe in
the manger go to such lengths to celebrate?
“Christmas
makes money,” you say.
But why does Christmas make money? What is Christmas selling?
I decided to set aside my frustration with excessive holiday
consumerism and probe deeper.
Could it be that all this Christmas madness actually expresses
deep longings of the heart?
They say that Christmas turns the heart toward home. I pondered
connections. Christmas/home.
Heaven/home. This led to the following question:
How are the ways we celebrate Christmas tied to universal
longings which can only be fulfilled in heaven?
Christmas takes us home.
The song says it well:
“I’ll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents under the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light beams
I’ll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams.”
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents under the tree
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light beams
I’ll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams.”
The universal longing:
The lyrics, “Christmas Eve will find me where the love
light beams,” evoke warm images of family and friends gathered around a
softly lit tree, a fire crackling in the hearth, of laughter and gentle words
of encouragement. Home is supposed to be the place where we belong.
Where we’re accepted and loved. Where we enjoy the company
of our loved ones. It’s a place of comfort, peace and safety.
Home is a shelter, a refuge from the harsh elements. The
place to come in from the cold for a cup of hot chocolate after playing in the
snow.
Home is a cherished ideal in our hearts, especially because of
what we believe it’s supposed to be and often is not.
Many times our homes do not protect us from the cold realities
of life. They’re not places of warmth and acceptance.
And so we yearn for harmony in our relationships and peace in
the world.
But perhaps the most unsettling truth about the earthly places
we call home is their transitory nature.
Something inside our souls is restless for permanence. For that
place where we’ll never have to say goodbye ever again, to anyone or anything.
The fulfillment: Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.”
When we finally arrive on heaven’s doorstep, the door will be
flung wide open and our loved ones will greet us with cries of joy.
We’ll be immersed in one eternal hello, surrounded by pure love,
bathed in a deep sense of belonging and acceptance.
And we will finally have come in from the cold to the ultimate
welcoming warmth, safe shelter, and comforting refuge.
About Randy Alcorn
I'm
the author of over fifty books and the founder and director of Eternal
Perspective Ministries. I love Jesus, my wife Nanci, and our daughters, sons
and five grandsons!
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