Discovering Joy in Christmas

“The Magi rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.  And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshipped Him.  Then opening their treasures they offered Him gifts.” 

Matthew 2:10-11

Every Christmas Season there is a great temptation for each of us.  With the busyness of this season, we are tempted to make Jesus small and everything big that looms around us.   Decorating, shopping, special Christmas parties, family gatherings, and other things pack our calendar. There is often little joy during this time of year. 

Add into this mix the common struggle with the holiday blues or depression, which often includes the sad memory of lost loved one or a broken homes, it is no wonder that one of the greatest mantras of this season is “I can’t wait till it is all over with.” 

It is a sad commentary on the human heart we can become so full of other things that the very reason this holiday was established was to help us worship the One greater who is greater than the other things we are fretting about.   

I love Matthew’s record of the birth of Christ in Matthew 2:10-11, who tells us about the Magi who traveled hundreds of miles from the east to see Jesus.  After the star they followed rested over the place where Jesus was Matthew writes, “they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.  And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshipped Him.  Then opening their treasures they offered Him gifts.” 

Here is what I want to help us all with as we now come to the last week before we celebrate Christ.  Let us make Jesus BIG and everything else small in relationship to who He is.  Let us find a way to worship Him this seasons for who He is and say in our hearts with the Magi who were in His presence 2000 years ago, “We rejoice exceedingly with great joy…  We worship Him…  We offer Him our hearts and our lives in the midst of the busyness of this season.”