‘The (very) silly season’

Christmas 2023 has come around again with its usual rush of shopping, end of year functions, school speech nights and break ups. Every year Christmas seems to come and go so quickly that many could easily question whether or not the time spent is worth it? Surely there must be some who are thinking that this year they’ll just ‘give it a miss’? I wouldn’t blame them.

Some already know a sense of emptiness when it comes to observing Christmas, which a sad reality of the world we live in. The Bible even asks us this question, ‘Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy?’ (Isaiah 55:2) Why indeed? If all that spending and shopping and scurrying just leaves an empty feeling, then why bother?

Perhaps the cause of the confusion is simply this – in our rush and hurry to observe Christmas, we miss the whole point of it! The ‘reason for the season’ is ‘Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners’ (1Timothy 1:15). Like it or not, Jesus is one huge question we must all answer. No longer a little baby in the manger, he is a returning King to whom we must all give account. He won’t ask how we spent Christmas, but what He will ask what we did with Him as the gift God sent for our salvation (see John 3:16-17).