The Spirit of Christmas will change your life

Ideal is the last word you would use to describe that first Christmas. 

Mary was nine months pregnant and making a long journey on a donkey. She was not yet married, and tongues wagged. How many of their friends really believed this story about a miraculous conception? She and Joseph traveled to his ancestral home for the census. Their nation was occupied by a foreign power, and the trip was all so that Rome could collect taxes. They arrive in Bethlehem, and there is no place to stay. There is no room at the inn, and they wind up in the stable out back, with some animals. 

That first Christmas was not pretty. And then who shows up to welcome Jesus’ birth? The grandparents are not there in the waiting room. Excited friends do not arrive with “It’s a Boy” balloons. The pastor does not stop by. Local dignitaries do not arrive to welcome the birth of this holy child. No, the only visitors are strangers – rough shepherds.

Christmas – not the perfect Christmas of greeting cards, but the real Christmas – wasn’t pretty for Mary and Joseph. And even in the midst of that mess, God came.

In the midst of the imperfect … perfection broke onto the scene. Christmas might not always be perfect, but it is incredibly beautiful, because I am reminded that in the imperfection of our world, and our lives, and our business, and our marriages, and our finances, and our choices, and our relationships … God comes. Your life today doesn’t need to look like a Norman Rockwell. God wants to break in right where you are.

Let’s be honest. This Christmas you are walking through something. For someone, it’s your family; for someone, it’s a neighbor; for someone, it’s your job; for someone, it’s you. But here is the amazing good news: that’s exactly when God breaks in. He specializes in coming to the imperfect. For God so loved the world … not just so that you might have life, but abundant life in this world and for eternity. This Christmas will you let God break in?

I have had a number of people ask me, “Are you in the Christmas Spirit yet?” What is the Christmas Spirit? I think for years I thought it was that feeling of peace, tranquility, innocence, some kind of hot cider for the soul. And maybe I would get it for a few brief moments in the season, and when it was gone I was disappointed. 

I have come to realize that the Christmas Spirit is a decision I make to let His Spirit break in. To let God be “Emmanuel” or God with me. To allow his overwhelming grace and peace to break into my imperfect existence and give me life, reorient once again my priorities, and allow me to be His hands and feet that might break into another’s life.

The spirit of Christmas is just a pretty picture that fades away. The Spirit of Christ can change your life for eternity. This Christmas will you let His Spirit break in like it never has before? Emmanuel, may God be with us!

This is Pastor Chad Wilks' 27th Christmas as the senior pastor at Sandpoint Church of the Nazarene.