Christmas in October

Lowe's and Walmart already have their displays up. Is anyone else groaning at the mere thought of the upcoming season(s)? For me, fall is the best possible nickname for autumn. It feels like an intense gravitational pull toward the bottom of social and financial exhaustion. Halloween, otherwise known as the new Christmas Eve, will launch us into the great high holiday season of Western Consumerism. We are weary at the thought of the immensity of our Christmas gift list and try to pretend that we will be able to stress-gorge without weight-gain. I'd rather not have to be reminded about those things for three months...

We really can't blame the secular world for the creation of a super-long runway for Christmas. We started it. The church has traditionally celebrated the season of Advent, (or "the coming"), for a solid month before Christmas. All the world did was embellish it and change the focus. That's what they do. So why so long a period of fixation? I think it's to remind us that all of humanity waited, groaned, for a very long time to be redeemed from its great Fall. We're a resurrection people, living on the better side of God's incarnation, and it's easy for us to take our position for granted. God's birth into the world is still a big deal! And so is His ability to take all of our worldly anxieties and frustrations and make them seem very, very small. God came to earth and gave us all-surpassing hope and power!

I'm going to try and remind myself every time I see a Christmas Tree on sale next to the clearance bathing suits that I need as much time as I can get to think about how humanity (myself included) is in deep need of its Redeemer. He's coming again. Are we thankful that our reasons to groan are really a reminder to rejoice in His completed work and long for His return?