Sometimes, even in mid December, we can find ourselves still waiting for our childhood friend, Christmas Spirit, to arrive. It’s not that we’re sad, lonely or even ambivalent about celebrating Jesus’ birth. Not at all. We may have our Christmas trees up and our houses decorated inside and out, and love it! This year, for me, is like most Christmases since I’ve called myself a grown-up. I’m aware that the excitement and anticipation brought to me as a child by the proverbial Christmas spirit still hasn’t arrived on my mind’s doorstep jumping up and down, eager to come in and loudly sing “Fa la la la la”. But truthfully, I don’t mind.

For a few days now I’ve been pondering the whole concept of the illusive Christmas Spirit, thinking, “What is this thing we call the ‘Christmas Spirit’ anyway?” I’ve come up with my own definition. Christmas Spirit: The expected experience of joy-filled emotions that should arrive every December as people, young and old, prepare for participating in various traditions, gift giving, and celebrations of Jesus’ birth. (I think that’s pretty good, don’t you?)

That’s the big picture. But if I was going to hone in on what experiences I used to think would somehow kindle the joy of the Christmas Spirit for me, I would have  included things like listening to Christmas Carols, searching in bustling malls to find perfect gifts for loved ones, giving those gifts, Christmas morning surprises, and watching gleeful children enjoy December’s amazing decorations and fun-filled events. These days, sometimes those things stir up plenty of Christmas-spirited feelings. Other times they bring about as much Christmas cheer as deflated helium balloons. But that’s really okay!

Year after year, in the midst of frenzied hunts through tree lots, drives through lighted neighborhoods, gift hunts in shopping malls, and even listening to Christmas songs playing in my own home I’ve realized that though those things are fun, they they don’t bring life. Joy that is meaningful is full of life. Over the years I’ve learned to exchange wistfully longing for the Christmas Spirit to come and bring me some joy, for instead, wrapping my heart and soul around the Wonder of Christmas. And time after time, as I find moments to mentally step away from the busyness of Christmas and into the Wonder of Christmas, something happens.

My soul begins to sing Joy to the World—joy for one enormous, unfathomable, never-ending reason—the Lord has come! The earth received her King all those many years ago, and He still is with us! And as my heart has its own exquisitely quiet celebration of that wonder-filled truth, the Wonder of Christmas brings afresh, and much more meaningfully, the Spirit of Christmas!

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us!’” Matthew 1:23

It’s true! He is!

Holy Spirit, thank You for faithfully keeping the Wonder of Christmas alive in our hearts as we purposefully focus on the love that God displayed when our promised Immanuel came to be with us. We adore You!