Yes, We Need a Little Christmas

Dear sister,

Having moved to a new town I have been in the process of seeking out a new home church. Every Sunday I have been to a different church and the sermon I heard at this Sunday’s church was on how Christmas is about productivity. Now you’re probably raising your eyebrows, but I urge you, dear sister, to keep reading.

During the hectic holiday season it is easy to get lost in family dinners, Christmas decorations, and checking off everyone’s Christmas lists. But this is not the kind of productivity the pastor was getting at. He furthered explained that Christmas is about the productivity that was established in the very beginning.

In Genesis 1:28 God commands Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply.” This verse is not simply referring to reproduction but to the very kind of life the Lord purposed his creation to live. He created us in order to accomplish the work he had prepared for us. He created us to be productive. But what happened? As you’ll remember, Adam and Eve rebelled against God, plunging all of humanity into the deep darkness of sin.

As a result, we now struggle to live productive lives. We struggle to accomplish the things that, before sin, would have been completely natural to do. It is this barrenness that brought Jesus into the world. He came to restore us to the kind of fruitful and productive life that God created us to live.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is singing Christmas songs but much of today’s popular Christmas music has nothing to do with Jesus or the reason for Christmas at all. “Silver Bells” (now on my list of hated Christmas songs) speaks of Christmas being “Santa’s big scene” and “We Need a Little Christmas” demands tinsel on evergreen boughs, fruitcake, and stockings so that we can feel like it’s Christmas time.

But none of these things give us what we need. Santa isn’t the star of the show. We are in desperate need of restoration so that we can live lives of productivity for Christ as God purposed for us before He even laid the foundation of the world. This is what Jesus brings. This is why we celebrate Christmas—not because Santa Claus is coming to town.

So, yes, we do need Christmas. Without it we remain dead and barren. Christ accomplished what we could not. He did what the Lord had assigned to him and he did it perfectly. Praise be to the Lord that He did too. For there is no other name in which we find life, no other name by which we are saved and no other name by which we can be called sons of God.

Merry Christmas!

Your sister,

Kayla