Perhaps one of the most astonishing developments in the history of mankind is how the time of year in which we celebrate the birth of the humble Savior who showed us the way of sacrificial love somehow became the most blatantly materialistic holiday of the year. It is an astonishing development, but it shouldn’t be a surprising one. It fits the Devil’s modus operandi. He only knows how to take God’s good gifts and pervert them into something destructive rather than life-giving.
This season in which we remember the humble beginnings of our Savior’s earthly life and His purpose in coming is meant to be life-giving. It is meant to redirect our hearts and minds to the One who promises abundant life. As the song says, “turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full on His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
“The things of earth will grow strangely dim…” But for so many, Christmas is the season when the things of earth shine more brightly than ever. For many it is the season of self-indulgence, and this is the Devil’s purpose in redirecting our gaze from Jesus to the things of earth. Paul says that a person who “is self-indulgent is dead” even while they live (1 Timothy 5:6). What a diabolical plan … take the beautiful story of the self-sacrifice of our Savior and so distort the season that celebrates it that it becomes a season about self-indulgence which leads to death rather than life!
May we be on our guard this Christmas season. May we recognize when the ugly desires for self-indulgence seek to take the foreground in our experience. May the beautiful story of the Nativity truly be life-giving to us this Christmas. May we push back against the Devil’s onslaught of materialism meant to create self-indulgence, and may we rather find the real life that comes through serving our rightful King.
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room …”
May this Christmas season be about preparing room for our King not for more stuff.
