Mike Rusch

it’s Christmas morning and things are quiet and peaceful for just a few minutes. The ground outside has a dusting of snow making it the first “white Christmas” that I can remember. The tree is lit & presents are neatly set under the tree. However, the pile is a bit smaller this year as it was the year before.

All is pretty much perfect in this moment, but as I look around there is still something that’s…keeping me restless. If I’m really honest, it feels like Christmas has lost a bit of its luster. The excitement, the presents & Christmas music just doesn’t seem to be what I remember from years past. It’s not that the idea of Christmas has lost its luster, but maybe it is the way it is practiced in my little corner of this world that has left something missing.

Please don’t get me wrong because family and celebration is wonderful; however, It feels like Christmas as I used to know it may have changed. Today I see Santa, the snow outside, the lights on the houses across the street and the traditional Christmas songs for what they are…just something that occupies my attention from the core of what this day is supposed to be about.

I’m sure I sound like some bitter scrooge, and that’s not the intention at all. I just want Christmas to be about…well, Christmas! I try so hard to do that, but it feels like I’m truly up against the world on this one. Our family has played the Santa game for too long, and now it just feels like a cheap substitute for the truth. I want them to know it’s a story & it’s fun to pretend, but at the same time I don’t want to steal any of the magic of this day. So, we let it continue…conflicted.

Even this year I was very conservative about gifts for my wife and yet I still feel like I didn’t do enough. I mean, where does that feeling come from? Sure I love to give because giving is fun, but that’s not really what this day is about. Yet, it feels like I don’t want to risk anyone feeling like I don’t care or don’t appreciate them. Unfortunately, this Christmas has again become about me. About my inability to express what this is all about and be the one that says…enough with what we’ve made it.

As I sit here, the coffee tastes great, it’s beautiful outside and it will be a day that I get to rest and be with family. And, that’s always a good day.

However, the reality of the snow outside that makes my street beautiful is also what causes my homeless friends to suffer. This day of family that I treasure also screams at me that my family isn’t all together. My little girl is not here. The presents that I receive are nice, but I don’t need them. The inflatable Santa on a motorcycle in the yard across the street makes me laugh, but it also reminds me how this day has nothing to do with Santa or a motorcycle.

…and so this morning, I read Luke 2 & Isaiah 58 once again and am comforted to continue moving deeper into what this day is really about. This day is simply about a God who came to be with us. He give all that He had so that I could be a part of His family, and then He asked me to follow Him.

If only I could do the same thing in the world around me this morning. Maybe then I would really have peace with knowing what Christmas is truly about. Not just in my head, but made real by my actions.

…this baby’s entrance into the world should simply change everything, so today I begin again moving forward in the hope that this would be made true in my life.

one final thought…when Jesus was given the opportunity to share why He had come (Luke 4:18), he echoed the words of the prophet saying they had been now fulfilled.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

May we all move forward with this same purpose…

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas & pray that “the year of the Lord’s favor” will be proclaimed.