Great Expectations for Christmas

​Christmas is loaded with expectations, isn’t it? Christmas shopping, decorating and entertaining. Typically we knock ourselves out trying to make it the “perfect” Christmas. And year after year we end up with the same empty feeling like Christmas wasn’t as personally fulfilling as we’d hoped. Why is that?
Let’s look at a few of our expectations.
Picture yourself seated at a beautifully decorated Christmas dining table. Cheerful Christmas music plays softly and a twinkling Christmas tree stands in the background. This is the time of peace on earth, goodwill toward others. Now picture your family and relatives all sitting together around the table. Do you picture them…arguing? Sometimes, in spite of our efforts, people knock heads, even at Christmas.
Perhaps you’re hoping that this year your children will be cheerful, patient and thoughtful of others. Well, if that’s how they are from January to November, you might have a shot at it in December. Or you might find them pulling ornaments off the Christmas tree and opening presents saying, “I already have this.”
Somehow we think the perfect Christmas is happening in someone else’s house, not our own.
Christmas is packed with expectations. Life isn’t perfect and our expectations can do us in. Rather than be driven by a list of expectations, there is a better way to approach Christmas. There’s a way to find it much more personally satisfying.
We get caught up in making everything perfect
But even after the holidays we can still feel empty
To me financially struggling was a blessing
I did not try to buy gifts for everyone
I bought one gift for my girls
Agency gifts were “Santa gifts
We do the saran wrap gift and a movie
Time is more important than gifts
Things will break, get lost, or stop working but our memories will always be there
Why did Jesus come to earth?
Jesus said,
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
You know how life at times can seem “lite,” pointless, without real meaning? Even at Christmas, we can go through all the motions, but life can still lack depth. Jesus wants to give us a more meaningful, abundant life.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
‭‭John‬ ‭1:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬