It’s 117 days to Christmas and already some shops have Christmas items for sale. Most of us groan at the notion of Christmas being thrust at us in August. It feels, somehow, wrong.
People like me who love to plan ahead are secretly quite pleased to have access to Christmas items all year round (it spreads the cost and facilitates planning – I live in a world where my head is six months ahead of the calendar date most of the time!) But over recent years I have come to appreciate the all-year-round message of Christmas more and more and do not object to frequent reminders.
Christmas, to me, is all about Jesus, and the name ‘Immanuel’ is one we remember especially at that time. Christmas remembers, and celebrates, ‘God with us’, God in human form, God taking on flesh and dwelling among us.
And the truth is, I need Jesus in August. I need Him in March. I need Him every day of the year. I’m living in ‘the messy middle’ of the story, when the world’s not all as it should be and I can’t always see a way out of trouble. I need, therefore, the reassurance that God is with us, not simply on special occasion days in dark December but also on 30th August, which isn’t a special date in my calendar. He’s there in the everyday and the mundane. He’s there in the ordinary. He’s there in the mess.
So whilst you may not be thrilled at seeing Christmas goods in shops, whilst you may balk about thinking about Christmas yet, don’t push Jesus out of the everyday. We need Immanuel every single day of our lives.
