Posted: 12/14/07
Finding the ‘spirit of Christmas’
By Sam Underwood
I was listening in (OK, go ahead and call it eavesdropping) on a conversation a couple of people were having in a restaurant. In my defense, it was one of those places where the tables are so crowded together, you might as well be sitting at the table with the ones next to you. I had not paid any real attention to them until one of them gave a heavy sigh and said, “I’m having a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit.”
Of course, that comment set off my radar. I wanted to hear the response of her companion, so I began to listen closely. Her reply was the sort that falls into the category of “What on earth does that mean?” But she said it anyway: “Oh, you will when the weather turns cold.” I’ve heard that one before, and I always wonder at its meaning. Is Christmas a season marker? Or does it depend on whether or not we have snow, like in the song or the movie? If that’s the case, there’s been no Christmas spirit around here in a very long time.
Even more, I have continued to think about what the first woman meant. What is “the Christmas spirit” she was asking about? Perhaps she meant she had not yet begun her annual shopping that supports the well-being of the economy. You know that siren song: You’re not a good American unless you’ve spent more than you can afford, and you’re not in the Christmas spirit until you’ve worked up the courage to brave mall crowds. Maybe her comment was nothing more than an expression of the dread she had for an unpleasant task.
I suspect it was more than either of those possibilities. I heard in her sigh a longing for something more than she was experiencing. And as I have continued to think about it, I have decided she was more in the Christmas spirit than she realized. What is the Christmas spirit if it is not, in some sense, a dissatisfaction with the way things are? If all had been perfect, if there were no sin and brokenness, no sorrow and pain, would there have been any need for God to invade this world in the life of Jesus? The spirit of Christmas is a spirit of dissatisfaction, a deep-seated, beyond words knowing there is more to life than what we have. But it is not merely a dissatisfaction; there is a longing at the heart of the frustration, a desire to experience “more.” The Apostle Paul says it eloquently in Romans 8 when he declares the whole creation “groans, longing for the redemption of mankind.”
The spirit of Christmas is a dissatisfaction and a desire. But it is more than either of these. At its heart, the spirit of Christmas is a confession that what we really need is beyond our power to buy, as much as we may try to do so. The spirit of Christmas is a gift given by God to those who wait, who sigh, who want God to work, to do something.
Even though she didn’t know it, that woman in the restaurant was much closer to Christmas than she thought. All she really needed was the gift of God’s grace in response to her longing sigh. Of course, that’s all any of us need. And, in Jesus, at Christmas, that is exactly what we have been given.
Sam Underwood is pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmers Branch.
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