Although the Christmas holidays are getting smaller and smaller in our rearview mirror, a Christmastime question asked by my young son continues to linger in my head.<\/p>\n
We had gathered with friends for one of the holiday\u2019s first Christmas parties on the first Friday in December last year. We enjoyed the tasty food, great conversation, special music of the season and a twist on our Christmas ornament gift exchange that left us all cracking up.<\/p>\n
Then, as our family began gathering our things and heading out the door after the party, 3-year-old Miller grabbed my pants leg and asked, \u201cIs Christmas done?\u201d<\/p>\n
Music was playing, dishes were clinking in the kitchen, parents were rounding up their kids and holiday chatter was all around, but everything was temporarily drowned out by honest questioning that can come only from a child. I immediately replied, \u201cNo son, there\u2019s a lot more Christmas to go. Now let\u2019s go home so we can take our baths and get ready for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was how this grown-up dad answered a little child\u2019s simple but profound question. As Miller sat buckled in his seat on the ride home and as I thought more about it in the weeks that followed, there was a lot more to his question than I first realized.<\/p>\n
Not only did he ask at the party if Christmas was done, he repeated it over and over throughout the holidays. Every morning during December, he\u2019d wake up and ask first thing, \u201cIs Christmas done?\u201d When we\u2019d leave another Christmas party or Christmas concert, he\u2019d ask again, \u201cIs Christmas done?\u201d Part of me wanted Christmas Day to hurry up and arrive so I could finally say, \u201cYes, Christmas is done!\u201d<\/p>\n
Americans like for things to be done. We like microwaves in our kitchen. We want our TV sitcoms to wrap up and be over with nicely and quickly. We live our life in a \u201cget \u2018er done\u201d kind of way — enjoying the completion of tasks and regularly checking things off our proverbial to-do lists.<\/p>\n
It seems to me that Christmas was never meant to be \u201cdone.\u201d Sure, the celebration of Christmas comes around once a year but the cause of the celebration is the One who has come to give us hope and peace all year long.<\/p>\n
Isaiah said long ago that the virgin would conceive and bear a son, and that He would be called Immanuel. Matthew quoted Isaiah and tells us that Immanuel means \u201cGod with us\u201d (Matthew 1:23). Before He ascended to the Father after the resurrection, Jesus promised, \u201cI am with you always, to the end of the age\u201d (Matthew 28:20).<\/p>\n
Is Christmas done? Well, if you count the 2016 celebration, yes. We\u2019ve taken the tree down at our house. The stockings aren\u2019t hung by the chimney anymore. All the Christmas goodies on the kitchen counter are gone. The Christmas decorations have been boxed up and hauled back into the attic.<\/p>\n
Linus, in \u201cA Charlie Brown Christmas,\u201d has reminded us of \u201cwhat Christmas is all about\u201d for the last 50 years. Knowing what it is all about causes me to realize that the answer to my son\u2019s question is \u201cNo, Miller, Jesus is always with us. Christmas is never done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although the Christmas holidays are getting smaller and smaller in our rearview mirror, a Christmastime question asked by my young son continues to linger in my head. We had gathered with friends for one of the holiday\u2019s first Christmas parties on the first Friday in December last year. We enjoyed the tasty food, great conversation, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2842,2843,1255],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}