Advent Devotion for December 2, 2024
Does the holiday season fill you with happiness, or are you like Charlie Brown and "always sad"?
The First Week of Advent: Monday, December 1, 2024
At the start of A Charlie Brown Christmas, we find Charlie admitting to Linus, “There must be something wrong with me. Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way that I’m supposed to feel. I just don’t understand Christmas I guess. I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards, and decorating trees and all that, but I’m still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.”
Charlie thinks that he’s supposed to feel a certain way at Christmastime. He thinks that he is supposed to feel happy. I wonder who told him that. How about you? Do you suppose that you’re supposed to feel happy now that the holiday season is here? Do you feel that happiness, or do you find yourself depressed, like Charlie Brown?
Decorating trees, putting up the Christmas lights, decking the house with greens and decorations, sending cards, getting presents – these things are pleasant experiences and imply that we should be happy. That, after all, is the “spirit of Christmas.”
Yet December is a busy, bustling, hustling time of year. Pressure, stress, and anxiety seem to have become the “spirit of Christmas” in today’s world. No wonder that millions of Americans feel more like Charlie Brown these days. A Charlie Brown Christmas was first aired in 1965. The stress of the holiday season has only gotten worse since then. So, we can certainly relate with Charlie’s search for happiness.
Maybe we, too, begin to feel that there must be something wrong with us. If we do all the Christmas traditions yet don’t feel happy, we may come to think that we, too, don’t really understand Christmas.
By the end of this classic holiday TV Special Charlie learns that Christmas, in the end, isn’t about the trees, presents, cards, or decorations. Christmas is about the Good News of our Savior’s birth. So to find true happiness at Christmastime it is important to reflect on its true meaning: “Unto you is born this day…a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
Prayer: Dear Lord, it’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the cultural celebration of Christmas. But truthfully, it brings more stress than anything. Help me to spend time this month reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas. Let the Good News of the Savior’s birth fill me with true peace and joy. Amen.