Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or friend, there’s something truly special about being around kids during the holidays. I’ll never forget our first Christmas after Foster was born. I laid him down under the Christmas tree and took the picture you see above. He was so quiet, gazing at those tiny lights with a sense of wonder and awe that only a baby could have. When you see someone else experience that kind of wonder, it brings back a little of it for you, too.
As we grow older, our eyes change, and we start seeing Christmas lights differently. We learn how they work, take on the responsibility of putting them up, and somewhere along the way, they lose their magic. Instead of childlike wonder, our Christmas season can get crowded with memories of loss, holiday stress, and conflicts. Some of us may even find ourselves wishing the season away, just to move past it.
Adulthood has a way of stripping the magic from things. We convince ourselves we’re seeing the world with clarity, as it really is. A Christmas light becomes just an LED bulb. A carefully wrapped present feels like more clutter. A carol is a tired melody, and the nativity—a plastic figurine barely worth dusting off.
But what if it’s the kids who see things as they truly are? What if what we call the clarity of adulthood is little more than “spiritual cataracts?” What if those quirky traditions, plastic mangers, uneven lights, and strange old stories are actually hints of a deeper reality? What if the hope, peace, joy, and love that feel like empty clichés are signposts guiding us back to the good and beautiful God who created it all? What if a child circling a toy in a catalog is a small echo of the longing we all have for the ultimate gift God gave us in Christ? What if all these things are God’s way of shining light into the darkest corners of our world?
This Advent, our sermon series is called Reclaiming Christmas. I invite you to join me in searching for what lies beneath all these signs. Let’s take time this season to reclaim hope, peace, joy, and love—for ourselves and for the people in our lives.
Searching with you,
Pastor Todd
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