I Love Christmas!

Rev. J. de Jonge. Trowel & Sword. Dec. 2010

Preamble: Christmas can mean many different things for different people. In this article Rev. de Jonge takes us through his own experiences growing up and ultimately, what Christmas means for the Gospel story and the message of salvation.

I Love Christmas!

“For [God] chose us in [our Lord Jesus Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
Ephesians 1:4

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

“The time came for the baby to be born, and [Mary] gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
Luke 2:6b,7

In recent memory there can’t be many Christmases that haven’t been high on my list of favourite times in the year, and often, highest. So why is that? Some obvious reasons that quickly come to mind include:

• Christmas celebrations with family and friends. 
• Extra public holidays and annual holiday in January most years.
• More time to spend with family and friends over bbq’s, outings, activities, etc,
• Less midweek deadlines in the average working week eg no Session meetings, catechism, etc.

But then, as I think back to my earliest memories of Christmas, it has always been that way. As far back as I can remember I have always loved the Christmas season.

One of my earliest memories of Christmas involves a church activity. It must have been a Sunday school breakup or Christmas Carols evening, probably at Toowong Reformed Church, with Rev Westra (I think) giving the kids each a box of Jaffas. It’s connected to another memory – maybe the same event, maybe another – of spending much of my time ducking behind the pulpit from one side to the other for the best vantage point on the different activities happening on the stage in front of us. I must have been about four or five years old.

Other early memories involve family events and traditions. The first thing that comes to mind is a family habit of opening Christmas presents soon after returning home from the Christmas church service, now in Inala church, probably aged six and older. Those memories include hot, sticky Christmas services in the muggy, Queensland, December weather. Afterwards we would head home, change into something more comfortable, enjoy a quick morning tea, and spend whatever time it took to take turns unwrapping present after present that dad or mum handed out from under the tree until they were all opened.

Other family traditions my parents started that quickly come to mind and still give Christmas season a special aura include putting out milk and oranges on Christmas Eve for Santa and the Reindeers. They were always gone the next morning, and I even vaguely remember Dad once finding the empty cup sitting on one of the ceiling fan blades.

And some years we would spend Christmas afternoon at a favourite park where there was a playground to enjoy, kangaroos, wallabies and emus in an enclosure, and big sprawling trees to climb. I can still remember how the park looked as you topped the last rise in the road approaching it, probably burned into my memory by the anticipation of arriving in a few seconds for another happy couple of hours play.

These kinds of activities, routines, and traditions have left me with hundreds of happy memories of my childhood Christmases. And as a parent now myself, my wife Nicky and I have consciously included elements like these in our family celebrations of Christmas, hopefully giving our children hundreds of similar happy memories to look back on in their years to come.

Some people who study these things conclude that happy memories of family and church are vitally important in the faith formation of children, and as I think back on my memories, I can understand why that might be true. An interesting thing in all of this is that memories of Christmas church events seem to date back further than those of family, although I strongly suspect that family influences have ultimately played a stronger role in my faith formation than church – not that I am minimising the positive influence of Church at all.

And one thing that surprises me a lot is that the Christmas story, and the gospel message, seem to be missing from those early memories altogether. It all seems to be about Jaffas, milk and oranges, opening presents, and visiting the park, etc. And as I talk to my wife, she feels some guilt at having to admit the same thing. We feel that it shouldn’t be that way, but if we’re honest, it is.

On the other hand, as I think about it, the Christmas story and the gospel message do underpin those memories. I only attended Christmas church events, because my parents were committed Christians. And the family traditions we enjoyed and remember were built on a gospel understanding of the meaning of Christmas, even if Santa played a part. I have extended family members who worry that those of us who don’t include Santa at the heart of Christmas are depriving our children, ‘How is Christmas going to be anything special? How is it going to mean anything special?’ But that definitely wasn’t a concern in our family. Family life generally, including Christmas celebrations, revolved around devotion to Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, God come to earth in the flesh, to save his people from their sins. And later memories I have confirm that without any doubt. And so, paradoxically, I believe that ultimately the strongest influence in the shaping of the child I was and the person I am today is ultimately the thing I remember least in those earliest memories – the gospel message at the heart of a true understanding of Christmas.

Recently in our evening church services, based on the Belgic Confession, we have been considering the amazing message that Christmas really is, without actually applying it to Christmas itself.

God, the Creator of every created thing, the King of the universe, who continues to sustain and control it all by his awesome power – from galaxies down to atoms, in the second person of the Trinity stepped down from his perfectly holy and glorious throne in heaven, and took on human nature, becoming like us in every way except for sin. And so Jesus, God and yet also man, was conceived in the virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And on that first Christmas Day he was born as a baby, in an animal shelter, and laid in their food trough – the humblest of the humble. He grew, and matured into a child and then a man, with his purpose and destiny from eternity past that he die on a cross, the righteous that we might be made righteous, the sinless for the sins of others. And he rose again on the third day to new life, so that in him, believing sinners might have new life, having been atoned for, redeemed, made right with God, declared by God to be holy and blameless in his sight. And ultimately, we will share in his glory for all eternity, transformed into his likeness.

When you think about it like that, isn’t the Christmas message an amazing message of Gods’ generous love, mercy, and grace to us who least deserve it? Where else do you find a message like that? Does atheism offer a message like that – with it presenting us as the products of random chance in a chaotic, disorderly universe, with no purpose to our lives, and nothing to look forward to after death? Of course it doesn’t. Does any other worldview, religion, or ideology offer a message that comes even close? And they don’t. The only other message on offer is a works gospel – save yourself, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, with no guarantee that you can, and no assurance that you will. The Christmas message – the gospel message – stands alone as a message of hope and grace when it comes to the big questions and ultimate issues of life.

And so, at a superficial level, I can say that I love Christmas because of the perks that come with the season and great times with family and friends. But after some rambling thought, at a deeper level, I’ve got to admit that there’s much more to it than that. I love Christmas because God first loved me. I love Christmas because he worked out his love in an amazing way that we will never fully understand or comprehend. I love Christmas because he has included me, through faith in Jesus Christ, in the message of hope and grace that is the only one on offer. I love Christmas!

John de Jonge

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