I’m sure you’re like me- you’re busy making your Christmas preparations- wanting to end the year on a high note with a happy family Christmas. I’ve had the COVID discussions with our families- both sides- on what adjustments we should make. We’ve assembled the delicate puzzle of family gathering scheduling with all the in-law pieces that are added each year. I’ve talked to family about who will bring what and what time we should start. I’ve asked who wants what in what size and have gone out and tracked down those gifts- except for that one person who is just impossible. I’ve used 3 or 4 rolls of Scotch tape and untold yards of ribbon to get the gifts all beautified. I’ve got stuffers for the stockings. I’ve nailed down who will be here for what meals and have planned accordingly. I’ve made my ingredient list and have gotten all the groceries that could be bought ahead of time. I’ve bought a nice tenderloin and have it tucked away in the freezer. It’s just what we, women, do around the holidays. We want to make Christmas nice for everyone and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

I was thinking about all of our high expectations at Christmas. We buy each other things we don’t need. Sometimes, we have so much that it’s hard to think of anything to get for each other. I’ve spent an obscene amount at the grocery store already and pray the power doesn’t go out and thaw my overpriced slab of meat in the freezer. We just set our sights a little higher at Christmas time. We want to enjoy those things we don’t get everyday. Gifts we wouldn’t buy for ourselves. Foods we don’t enjoy often. People we only see at the holidays. We want everything to be special from start to finish. It’s just what we expect at Christmas. Even the Christmas of 2020. 

If I was being totally honest, I’d probably say I have an ample supply of expectations almost every other day of the year, too. Maybe even tipping toward feeling a little entitled. Nobody wants to admit that. Entitled is not a flattering adjective, but I’d say if I was being completely truthful, I do feel that way about a lot of things. There are just certain comforts that I expect to have. I don’t want anyone else to provide them for me, but I want them to be available to me on a consistent basis. Not anything too exorbitant, but I expect to have a certain level of comfort. I want the heat to come on when I’m cold and the ever-important AC to keep the Mississippi summers bearable. I expect a dry house to shelter me from the rain and a comfortable bed to sleep on at the end of a long day. I want light to remove the darkness when I flip a switch. I’d have to say I should have a phone to keep in contact with my family and friends and for general communication use. I feel like I should have the food I need to live and some that I just want to enjoy when I’m not even hungry. I expect to have clothes and shoes and the coats I need. I even believe I should have a car to get from place to place. It’s not a necessity, but I feel like it’s one of the comforts that falls on my list of basic needs. I expect that I should be able to see a doctor when I’m sick and that the medicine I need will be available to me.  If I was to be completely honest, I could probably go further with my list of the expectations to which I feel entitled but these would be the ones that I’d consider the must-haves. Geez. Sounds pretty disgusting when you write it out like that. 

I’m probably not the only one who is guilty of feelings of entitlement. Our society is eaten up with the spirit of entitlement. We’re so blessed that we’re not really accustomed to going without much and especially not voluntarily giving up those things which give us the most comfort and contentment. But, isn’t that the very thing Jesus did on that first Christmas night? He left his heavenly home of perfect peace and love to come to this place of hatred and chaos. He left things too glorious for our mortal minds to imagine to come to a stable and begin a life of experiencing hunger, pain, ridicule, sadness, rejection, loneliness, disappointment, and then death. I, the created, feel like I’m entitled to have a certain level of comforts and the Lord Jesus, the Creator, left everything good and perfect to come here to do without and suffer so He could save this entitled creation of His. That really sounds horrible but that’s about the size of it. Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58) Yikes. I believe that was one of the requirements on my list. 

“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8

The Christmas story usually picks up in Bethlehem with the star and shepherds and the manger. We don’t really think much about what Jesus gave up that night. We can’t just look at the gift of the baby without considering what was forfeited to become that gift. But, He knew we’d have dark days. He knew about 2020 and all the other years that would make history with their hardship and sadness. He knew we’d have feelings of hopelessness and moments of defeat. He knew we’d become frustrated with injustice and fearful of the future. He knew we’d go through times of loneliness and sickness and anxiety. He knew we’d have our share of disappointment and feelings of helplessness. He knew we’d have worry that would cast long shadows over our minds. He knew we’d experience losses that would knock the wind out of us. And that there would be days that would almost break us. Days we wouldn’t be sure we could survive. He knew. And He knew how badly we’d need Him, so He left perfection so we could have hope in all of those days and times and moments when the world seems so cold and life when this one comes to its end. 

The greatest Christmas gift is available to everyone.

“For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

You’ll never know how much I appreciate all of you. I love reading your comments and emails and seeing your names on social media. You are a blessing in my life and I really mean that. May God bless you and yours, this Christmas season! Praying for better days ahead. Either way, we’ll go it together.