The Colors of Christmas

You can tell what time of the year it is by observing the colors on the store shelves.



In the summer, the merchandise is colored in pastels. In autumn, everything reminds you of the color of pumpkins, gourds, squash and falling leaves. And then right after you have wolfed down your turkey and cranberry sauce, the stores display their most brilliant colors. The reds, greens, purples, scarlets and blues take over. They are the colors of candles, holly, Christmas tree hangings, and table covering. But, they are also the colors of all that is regal. They become in their own way, reminders of Christmas’ connection to the eternal King of Kings and Lord of Lords, born a babe in Bethlehem.


But even if you want to, it is difficult to focus on the spiritual significance of Christmas while perusing department store aisles. Print ads are urging us to spend. Everything is 20 percent off. Prices are slashed. It’s our last chance to buy two for the price of one. We get caught up in the consumer dimension of Christmas, not just because of the lure of commercials and print ads, but because deep inside, encoded in our spirit, giving gifts is one way we demonstrate love. By December, we’re all thinking about that special gift, the one that best says, “I love you.” And we’re all waiting expectantly to look under the Christmas tree for the package that bears our name.


I am not exempt from this thinking. I want to give thoughtful gifts to show my love to my kids, husband, family and friends. But I also want to hold onto the spiritual significance of Christmas. I don’t want the eternal to get lost in the holiday.


Our desire to give gifts to those we love is a micro version of the character of a God in whose image we are created. His gift, thoughtfully chosen with our greatest need in mind, reflects His incredible love for us.
His package contains things that no one else can give. He gives us salvation--freedom from the bondage to and consequence of sin. Sin is anything we do or any attitude we hold to get our needs met our way instead of God’s way. When we are bound to living sinfully, we never achieve the potential for which we were designed. And the consequence of living sinfully is death and eternal separation from God who planned for us to live into eternity with Him.


God makes possible our salvation through the heroic feat of His Son, Jesus Christ. Mysteriously, Jesus Christ was God putting on human flesh. He was our Creator reduced to human form who suffered the consequences of all the sins of the human race so that we don’t have to. Christ coming back to life, three days later, demonstrates to us that this great feat to free humans from the consequences of sin was accomplished. It also foreshadows our resurrection from death to eternal life.


Our responsibility to this amazing gift is to believe and bow in humility to Jesus Christ who loves us and makes our salvation possible. God didn’t have to do it. He didn’t have to become human. He didn’t have to live a perfect life and he didn’t have to die an innocent man to be a substitute for us, guilty of sin as charged.


Surprisingly, as humans we are naturally hostile to bowing to God despite all the evidence that He has our best interests at heart. So, along with salvation, God includes repentance. This is only possible because of the Holy Spirit, another mysterious dimension of God. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to realize our losses in living disconnected from God. He also places within us the ability to desire and ask for forgiveness for our sins. He processes the repentance in our spirit, and then restores our relationship with God. When we repent, we acknowledge that living independently of God and trying to get our needs met our way is the worst thing we can do and actually is an affront to Him since He is our Creator.


And the final gift in God’s package to us is the power through the Holy Spirit to live an abundant life—to depend on God for all our needs, to live and love well and to share our gift from God with others.


So instead of walking through stores with shelves lined once a year with purples, scarlets and greens, in the distant future or sooner than we realize, we will walk into eternity on streets of pure gold in a holy city with walls adorned with emeralds, sapphires, topaz and pearls. A city illuminated by the glory of God’s own brilliance.



Merry almost Christmas

Kathy Lewis