As I was watching the news this morning, the plight of container ships at the ports and the lack of supplies in the American marketplace dominated the headlines of the reports. Everything from cars, car parts, electronics, hardware, bicycles, pet supplies, and toys remain afloat in seaports. At the same time, consumers progressively shop from store to store or turn to Amazon Santa to secure their purchases. It has revealed how materialistically needy we are as consumers and how dependent we have become on the quick buy and fix mentality. If it’s not working or we need it bigger and better, we will just buy it. Not so easily accomplished since the pandemic way of life has established itself as administrations and businesses struggle to figure it out.
Already, there is a warning tone about the upcoming holidays and how our holiday shopping will be impacted by our current situation. The marketplace is already hinting that early shopping and ordering will aid us in decreasing our failure to supply what may be at the top of our loved one’s Christmas list. Grocery stores and food supplies have also been impacted as every business using ground transport is begging for drivers. Our supply chain to our normal holiday expectations has more than a few links missing for sure.
This year I felt impressed that I needed not just a yuletide change but a refreshment. Last year was a turning point for many of us as we celebrated in isolation and quarantine, advised, and many were unable to gather with loved ones and friends to celebrate Christmas. Some of us were secretly envious of those who ventured out and thumbed their noses at social distancing, only to retract our positions when lots of families not only exchanged gifts but viruses as well as we watched the number of new cases surge. I find it ironic that last year we were deprived of fellowship with each other, and this year, it looks as though we will do without the “stuff” that makes the season bright. Though the parameters are less strict this year, fear still hangs over our heads along with the mistletoe as we make our list, perhaps considering vaccination as a plus one status. Maybe more will gather, but our secret Santa may be outed and left empty-handed when it’s time to exchange gifts. We all confess as believers that these trims and trees are not what Christmas is all about, but if we are honest, Hallmark has a better grip on our expectations than we even realize or are willing to admit.
As a believer, I am blessed to live out the daily joy all year long of 2 events. The arrival of Messiah… Christmas and His Mission accomplished at the Cross… Easter or Resurrection Sunday, as I like to refer to it. These 2 miracles, like symbolic bookends, hold together the love story that God has for us as His creation. To have my Christmas celebration refreshed, I look back at the beginning of the story when God pursued His people to set them aside to help unveil His plan of Salvation. God took Israel, a small nation, and used them like a ladle to serve out his love to the rest of the world. Though the Christmas story begins in Genesis as God proclaims a Redeemer will come, the plan takes on a fuller dimension when God speaks to Moses at the burning bush. When God calls Moses to lead the nation, Moses asks in the course of conversation, “What is your name.” God replies that His name is “I AM.” I made a note as a writer that for me, this is God signing His name to the first Christmas card in the history of the world. Sending Moses to the people was just a small beginning. For later on, we would behold, in the flesh, the I AM. God taking on the form of man, sent so that the world might be saved.
How refreshing for my spirit to just meditate on God’s declaration of who He is. I AM is the ultimate statement of identity. It’s God’s proclamation that He is self-sufficient, He is self-existent, and He is a constant abiding presence. He needs nothing to make anything happen, and His purposes are never impacted by circumstances. He is not subject to change or the forces of fate. He dwells above all else and exists outside of time. When it came time to send Christ that first Christmas, no force on earth could hold back Heaven’s greatest gift. No virus, marketplace crisis, no political debacle, nothing could stop mankind from receiving and all of the creation celebrating, Immanuel, God with Us!
Though there was war, strife, sickness, poverty, enslavement, enough crisis to go around, still Peace on earth and goodwill to all men arrived! Though the earth struggled, God had and still has the Whole World in His Hands, as the song states.
This year, my perspective of the season is already being refreshed. It is lighter; it’s being lifted daily with the thought that the truest Christmas joy, the Salvation of God, the Great I AM, is still as powerful and present as He was the day I turned to Him and began unwrapping the gift of eternal life. Christ can and is transforming me into His very image. Though outwardly, Christmas may be changing, inwardly, my celebration can be greater this year than ever before. Though I may lack the fellowship of some of those I love, though parcel and package may be in a port, the Great I AM has come to me, changing my expectations to glorious anticipation of the abundant life He has promised me. Joy To The World, The Lord Has Come! Not by land or sea, but through the miracle by the Holy Spirit to a virgin’s womb, all the way to the Cross and out of the empty tomb of His own power over death to the heart of the sinner. Hallelujah, be refreshed…He came!
Lord, even this moment refresh me with the power of who and all you are. Remind me your song of Glory was on the wind before a Christmas Carol was ever written. Let me read your word and dwell on the Christmas message you sent to me personally, that you were inviting me to your table of celebration in your house. Let me stand firmly on the knowledge that nothing can take away my joy unless I yield to it and give it a priority above the Peace and goodwill you offer me every day.
Thank you, that you are the GREAT I AM, and you have revealed to me I am your child, your beloved. To whom you have brought hope, joy, and a bright future. Help me not to blind myself with the sparkle of tinsel and settle for the temporary fulfillment that holidays can bring. Let me be satisfied with you, Jesus alone, the greatest gift of all.
Join the 5 o’clock worker next time when the Christmas series “The Great I Am” continues.
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