Will You Miss Jesus in Christmas This Year?

My youngest son was elected to the Homecoming Court in his senior year in high school. As is tradition with many schools, the big game was ushered in with a parade that wound through the back streets of our community ending at the high school. My husband and I joined several hundred others – mostly parents – and lined the streets ready to cheer for our school.

Various groups from the school created floats for the parade and our son had borrowed our trailer for his group – the Student Advisory Board (SAB) – to decorate and ride on. They’d borrowed it just that afternoon. We couldn’t imagine it had undergone much of a transformation so we assumed it would not be too difficult to recognize them. And, on top of that, we knew our son was wearing a bright yellow suit.

The parade started. The football team in 4 or 5 pick up trucks were the first ones to pass, followed by the cheerleaders. The art club float was by far the best with their rendition of a giant salmon. The drama club was all dressed in pirate garb promoting their fall performance. The band marched on playing the school’s fight song. Talon, the school’s mascot danced and waved and shook the children’s hands as he passed by. We dodged the candy flying through the air and joined in the noise with our toy horns. We saw a bunch of our son’s friends. We even talked to a couple of them as they went by.

But, in the midst of all the distraction of the parade, we missed our son. He saw us and called out, but we didn’t see or hear him through the noise. When the parade was over we were still standing by the side of the road wondering how we had missed him.

How many of us miss something big because of distractions? In this time of Advent, it seems relevant to ponder the question – will we miss Jesus in the noise of the parade?

But, wait a minute, you say. Jesus was born on a quiet night, under the starlight, with the cattle lowing and the sheep quietly looking on. Or so the pristine version of the nativity scene leads us to believe. On that night, Jesus was, and we claim still is, the main attraction. How could we possibly miss him?

Bethlehem had a lot going on when Jesus was born. People had come to town for a government ordered census. Hotels were full, the town was bustling, and everyone was frantically trying to get ready for the giant family meal that was upon them. Tempers and resources were strained. Despite all of the prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah, the people of Israel were too distracted by all of the preparations and demands of that season to pay attention to a young couple frantically searching for a place to rest and bring their child into the world.

Shepherds in a nearby field heard the news from angels. They were, by and large, immune to the hustle and bustle of all that was going on in Bethlehem and nearby Jerusalem. Maybe that is why God chose to reveal this eternity-altering event to them. Unencumbered by all the distractions, they noticed. They heard. They got up and went to see for themselves.

After seeing Jesus they shared the news with their local neighbors. The scriptures tell us, “After seeing him [Jesus], the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished” (Lk 2:17-18). They were astonished, but no one else left their homes to witness the scene themselves. Were they too tired? Too burnt out? Too overwhelmed? We don’t know. But we do know that the birth of the Savior of the World went largely unnoticed.

For us, however, this story should be quite different. We know what God did, who Jesus is, and how the story ends. And yet, far too many of us will miss Jesus at Christmas this year.

Christmas started with the frenzy of Black Friday and will end with a sigh of relief around January 1^st when the last decoration

comes down. Church-going Christians have spent four weeks preparing for Christmas. Four weeks of sermons. Four weeks of Advent candles. Four weeks of reading the familiar Scriptures. Four weeks of 24/7 Christmas music. God is announcing the arrival of his Son, but for many of us, the distractions of the season will leave us standing on the sidelines wondering when Jesus passed us by. Christmas will come and go, and Jesus will largely go unnoticed.

I am guilty of being more concerned about decorating the tree, buying and wrapping the gifts, planning the meals, and cramming my schedule full of “special” events, than I am about intentionally watching for Jesus. On more than one occasion I have wondered where God’s promised peace is. Consumed with all of the “doing”, we are robbed of the good news that will bring us the great joy God intends for us to experience. Jesus calls our names, we are simply too distracted to hear him.

On that first Christmas, God altered the course of eternity for everyone who would believe in Jesus. Every Christmas since then has been, and continues to be, God’s invitation for the unbelieving world to know their Savior. If Christians can miss Jesus in the middle of Christmas, how are those who don’t believe in him supposed to recognize him?

What have the past four weeks been like for you? I admit, they’ve been busy for me. I’m increasingly aware of how often I am asked, “Are you ready for Christmas?” What the question means is “are you finished shopping?” The answer to that is, no. I am not.

I want the question to mean “Are you ready for Jesus? Are you unencumbered enough to hear the angels sing of his birth? Will you  notice his coming?” When I ask the question of others, this is what I want it to mean. I don’t want to miss Jesus and I don’t want you to either.  It isn’t too late. What can you do this next week to un-encumber Christmas and share Jesus with someone else? This will look different for each of us. Maybe it’s opening up the family meal to include someone whose family is far away. Maybe it’s redirecting those last dollars for un-purchased gifts to the local food pantry. Maybe it’s saying Merry Christmas less and saying God loves you more.

Whatever it is, let’s be ready to share God’s good news of great joy so that no one misses HIM.