Fullness.
That might not be the word that comes to mind for you this Christmas season. I know from personal experience that sometimes Christmas doesn’t go the way we expected. Whether it was visiting a rehab facility on Christmas day while my brother was in treatment for drug addiction or the first Christmas after my dad died – I know all to well that feeling of “it’s not suppose to look like this.” Fullness wasn’t the word I wouldn’t have used to describe those days.
I sat in the quiet this morning and couldn’t help but think about how many people are approaching Christmas with a narrative surrounding them they could have never expected. People who are managing the diagnosis that just came, the change in travel plans, or the tensions that exists between family members. I have had so many conversations this past week with people who are headed into this holiday season carrying the unexpected. Christmas was not going to look like they thought it would.
When I have been in that seat myself something in me almost felt like my story was wrong. Something in me had decided what Christmas was suppose to look like, and when it didn’t fit inside that box – it could feel like I had become the outsider looking in. Maybe this year for you it feels like Christmas has “less” than what its suppose to have. Less magic. Less joy.
But what I know is that my feelings write terrible stories. These are the moments where I have to hold up what I think/feel to God’s Word and see what He says.
What does scripture tell me about the narrative around Christmas?
We talk about the first Christmas, rightfully so. The triumphal arrival of our Savior. But have you ever thought about the years following? What did the 2nd one look like, or the 3rd?
If you look at the timeline in Scripture we see the following:
- Jesus is born. (Luke 2:7)
- Jesus circumcised on the eighth day. (Luke 2:21)
- Jesus presented at the temple. (Luke 2:22)
- Jesus and family return to Nazareth. (Luke 2:39)
- Jesus at twelve years old at the feast of the passover. (Luke 2:41)
From the first Christmas to twelve years later — Were they settled into a home? What did they do? Who was with them?
So really, we don’t know what even Christmas looked like for Jesus Himself. But what we do know is that there was fullness. There was fullness because He is the fullness.
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him…” Colossians 1:19
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…” Colossians 2:9
Our hearts can ache as we acknowledge the emptiness we might feel durning Christmas time. It can feel like there is “less” but the Word of God reminds us – there is a foundational narrative that is true for all of us – there is fullness.
Not because it is what we feel or even see – but because of who Jesus is.
So whatever Christmas looks like for you this year, may you know that there will always be a banner over it – fullness.
It is yours to claim, despite whatever the day looks like.
May the fullness of God fill every empty space you are holding this season.