Each year around the Christmas (Advent) season, me and my family will drive around to the many towns that we visit and rate the performance, artistry, creativity, and beauty of the Christmas decorations. As a family, we hold to the belief that holiday decorations should be creative yet simple, beautiful yet simple, colorful yet simple, and worthy of a repetitive encore yet simple.
It really bothers my spirit when I pass by a home that has so many lights that an airplane can easily mistaken it for an airport runway. When the decorations are so numerous and exuberant that it zooms past the place of pleasant entertainment and falls over into the land of “it’s too much after all”. When the decorative décor forces a disparaging and even demeaning mindset of a “full of yourself” meaning of Christmas rather than the thankful reflection of God’s son being born in a town that literally means “House of Bread” in order that we would have the opportunity to be saved and to share with others that same hope. When the decorations are so stretched and far-reaching you tend to wonder more about the time, money, and resources that were wasted to produce an image that is completely opposite and unrepresentative of the genuineness and authenticity of the holiday being celebrated.
Every year me and my family face this dilemma and contention of Christmas decorations and we always go back to the purpose of the holiday and the statement which sums up God’s projection of Jesus Christ into the world: “Keep it simple!” And this is where I am reminded of the words of the apostle Paul in Galatians 5 when he says, “…if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” You see, your spiritual freedom is not identified in how well you can decorate it in order to make it look appealing. Your freedom in Christ cannot be masked over with shiny ornaments, decadent fixtures, and a multi-colored trail of lights. The gift is not the decorative paper, the fashionable bow, or the sparkling glitter that is sprinkled on our spiritual freedom.
Paul reminds us that all of the “extra” is unnecessary because it is the extraneous attention to the “extra” which distracts us from the visibility of the actual gift of our freedom in Jesus Christ. It is frankly a waste of our time if we are so caught up in pointing to the bells and whistles of the holiday season that we never acquire the actual gift. Rather than explaining why the arrival of Jesus gives us a reason to sound off a whistle, we will find ourselves in great danger of getting to Christmas, opening up the gift, and finding that Christ was never there because we never placed him as the centerpiece of our decorative box.
It is so easy to get sucked into the commercialism of the Christmas season and the flamboyance of outward appeal and decorative décor that we can be steered away from the real gift of Christ that God left us because he loved us so. As Paul said, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” A belief that God loved us so much that we have a warranted obligation to express that belief by the way we exhibit love one for another. This does not require miles of blinking lights. This does not mandate that we spend a whole lot of money for trinkets within malls, department stores, and online portals. This does not require us to outdo and out-purchase relatives and friends in order to create an unrealistic gauge as to how much “Christmas spirit” we have. These decorations hold no value in the grand scheme of God’s infinite plan and neither should they hold any consent of value for you. They are unapproved. Immediately discard them out of your spirit.
Peace and blessings to you.
~Rev. E. Shon Hagwood, M.Div.
