Christmas In Our Deepest Wants
Christmas is often regarded as a season of childhood, whimsy, and belief. Even during the pandemic, children keep believing in Santa Claus, gifts are still given, holiday movies still treasured, and the nostalgic feelings of the "Christmas spirit" are still expected.
How is it that Christmas can arrive in the midst of uncertain circumstances like these?
While re-listening to a favorite Christmas song of mine, Christmas in the Room,written in 2008, I thought the lyrics errily echoed our 2020 pandemic-laden holiday:
Sufjan Stevens - Christmas In the Room:
No travel bags, no shopping malls
No candy canes, no Santa Claus
For as the day of rest draws near
It's just the two of us this yearNo silver bells or mistletoe
We'll kiss and watch our TV showNo traffic jams, no ice and storm
Far in the house the fire is warm
No Christmas tree, no great parade
It's just an ordinary dayNo parties planned, no place to go
It's just the two of us alone
And in the house we see a light
That comes what we feel insideI'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
Till it's Christmas in the room
Till it's Christmas in the roomOh, I can't see the day when we'll die
But I don't care to think of silence
For now I hear you laughing
The greatest joy is like the sunriseNo gifts to give, they're all right here
Inside our hearts, the glorious cheer
And in the house we seek a light
That comes from what we know inside
These song lyrics can sound a bit depressing, but in the tension of sadness and joy hides a vision of the true meaning of Christmas, the gift we have in Jesus.
Sufjan, a believer, subtly introduces the truth of the gospel when he notes how Christmas can come, can arrive in the most ordinary of circumstances. It still surprises us how Christmas can come to us—the Christ-mas that is Jesus Himself—still arrives in the midst of loneliness, pain, fear, poverty, even, yes, in a manger in a forgotten town to a seemingly insignificant couple.
Sufjan's song, though echoing the sadness and loss of this season, actually teases out the true beauty of Jesus's coming to us and for us. He is the gift to a lost and broken world like ours.
He is the gift that comes, not into our ideals of Christmas, but into our reality this year, this very moment.
This is such a different picture of Christmas. Yet, it is the truth of what we celebrate as Christians at Christmas.
The boxes, decorations, and trapings are really just ways to deck the halls--to celebrate the internal meeting of our souls with the arrival of the Lord Jesus. But the most important part—what is central—the only necessary part, is the very real Presence of Jesus the King with us this year.
And, as the chorus repeats over and over again, in the context of our lack, Jesus arrives and sings, "I'll come to you, I'll since to you/Like it's Christmas in the room/I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you/Till it's Christmas in the Room/Like it's Christmas in the Room."
Do we really know the arrival-of-Jesus this way in our own lives?
In the Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens notes,
“ We choose this [Christmas] time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices.”
We may have enjoyed many holidays where “Abundance rejoices”, and may still in the future. Yet this year, the regulations surrounding this Christmas season can highlight the length and depth of adjustments and changes that we all have faced during the pandemic this year. This may arrive as a major loss from the pandemic, or a series of minor losses, or just an underlying weariness.
The lack of holiday festivities at the end of the year can function like a giant mirror reflecting the unresolved potentialities of an unusual and strange year. But for many, whether because of the pandemic or other circumstances outside our control, may in reality this year, be facing a Christmas where Want is keenly felt.
And I think this is the point of Sufjan's song.
Likely there are more people experiencing the Lack or Want this Christmas than there are folks experiencing the Abundance.
And Sufjan’s song reminds us that Jesus isn't just found in our Abundance, but He actually arrives in our Wanting places. And Sufjan—and Jesus therein—comes to you and sings to you like it's Christmas in the room.
What would it be like to invite Jesus into your areas of Lack or Want this Christmas?
What would it be like if He came into that "room" where that Lack is? Where the Want is felt most?
What if He could sing with you? Dance with you? What if you and Him could be so, so honestthat you two could actually laugh together?
It may not all be fixed. The holiday trappings might be missing. The pain might still be present. But how different to have the King of the universe there, spending this holiday with you.
Where is singing missing? Let Him sing to you.
Where is dancing lacking? Let Him dance with you.
Where is laughter quieted? Let Him laugh with you.
And if there are tears, let Him tend to you there too. For this is His holiday, and He wants to spend it with you if you'll just invite Him in.
Consider this picture Jesus offers to the early church in the midst of great trials:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Though the modern church often refers to this as a call to salvation, the early church heard this as a invitation for those already-in-relationship to Jesus, to open the door of their homes and their hearts to live-with, to dwell-with, to stay-with Jesus Christ in the very ordinary, and sometimes trying moments, of their everyday lives.
What difference would it make if Jesus actually spent this Christmas with you? For in Him, there is no Lack. There is no Want. He Himself is "Life and Life Abundant."
Might you take a moment to speak with Him about this now?
“Because thou hast made the Lord, which is thy refuge, even the Most High thy habitation.
There shall be no evil before thee, neither shall any plague come by thy dwelling.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.”
