Christmases in my late teens are some of my fondest feelings of my entire life.
I feel odd talking about this time in life because I’ll end up talking about kittens, Rice Krispies, Care Bears, and babies to get my point across. That warm feeling that is far too rare in life is the only other way to describe these times of the year. The closest thing I can reason why these times are felt and remembered this way has to do with people, however briefly, in complete reconciliation with each other. If only for a few hours, 10-30 people around me become drama-free and seem to rise to a different level of human interaction and intimacy. As I begin to think it about, I miss it.
Part of God becoming man was to reconcile everyone to everything, or at least to start. God wants us to love to him, love each other, and love the world around us. That is the vision of the future that I caught in those times. C.S Lewis equates joy to that idea – he called it sensucht, a funny-sounding german word for that indescribable feeling of longing that isn’t necessarily bad, but a good longing. Feel me?
Lewis goes further to say that joy isn’t the end state, but the journey to the state. The joy of those Christmas memories is that it is a glimpse along the journey towards what the New Creation. And when that comes, we will have untainted knowledge and relationship with God, pursuing the greatest understanding of a fully unknowable God. That is the greatest joy.
And that, to me, is Christmas.
WK