Christmas is Only About Love

Intro: I wrote this about this time 2 years ago when I knew my daughters were going to face their first Christmas without their parents being together.  I was depressed and felt like a failure as a father.  So often when I write, it feels like someone else is writing for me and to me what I need to hear.  This is a good example of that.  I needed this and it helps me everytime I read it. 

Christmas is only about love:
This season fosters an amazing atmosphere that is so wonderful. It's my favorite time of year. I love the warmth and intimacy that seems to be everywhere. This amazing atmosphere is produced by the lights, decorations, the focus of buying gifts for others, the music, the yummy food, the feeling of free flowing affection, etc.

All of these things are wonderful, but the first Christmas didn't have any of those. The first Christmas only had love. The wise men didn't arrive with gifts until Jesus was a toddler and living in a house. That first Christmas eve and the next day, it was only a man, a woman and a newborn in a borrowed barn. There was no drummer boy. No joyful music. They didn't know anyone, so there were no friends or family to visit. Well, there were a couple of shepherds that were strangers to them. They told an odd story and smelled as bad as the barn because they had been living with their sheep for days.

The animals weren't cooing and snuggling with the baby. They were pooping and peeing all around them. It wasn't warmly lit like the manger scenes we see today. It was damp, cold, and dark. The atmosphere was anything but warm and intimate. In fact, it was miserable. And I suspect that Mary and Joseph felt like terrible parents that night. I wonder if they felt like they had failed their new son. In their eyes they had absolutely nothing to give to their baby, but they gave him what they did have -- love. They couldn't provide a warm Christmas atmosphere, but that baby was loved. The place and circumstances were horrible, but that baby was loved.

It's almost as if God wanted to strip everything else away so that the only thing left was love. He wanted it to be the only thing there that first Christmas because he knew what we often take a lifetime to learn, that the only thing that really matters is love. Christmas is about love. From the very first one it was always about love. So let's enjoy the warm and joyful atmosphere, but if we can't have a perfect atmosphere, that's ok- as long as we have love.

There are soldiers in harm's way that will not get to enjoy a warm Christmas atmosphere, but I bet they love someone and are loved. There are families who have lost a child, a brother or sister, a mother or father. There are families who cannot afford to make the Christmas season all it could be. There are people who will have someone they love in the hospital or struggling with a frightening disease. The difficulties of life do not stop for Christmas. But the difficulties of life must always bow to love. Love conquers all. So regardless of what we have lost, if we have love, then we will have Christmas. If we have love, then we will have Christmas the way it was always supposed to be.

Merry Christmas to us all.