What If You're Not Happy On Christmas Day?
Thinking about the true meaning of Christmas
Christmas seems to be the worst time to be sad. After all, everyone seems to be having a good time.
“Merry Christmas!” we hear everybody saying.
But what if you can’t be merry? What if you can’t be happy on Christmas day?
What if you’d spend Christmas away from home, missing the warmth of your family? Or what if you’re about to spend your first Christmas without a loved one who passed away?
What is there to be merry about? Is it our obligation to be happy this Christmas season?
Perhaps it’s worth reminding ourselves about that first Christmas.
That first Christmas, there were no parties to attend and no decorations to be set up. There was no loud music. There was no Santa Claus. There were no greetings to exchange with family and friends.
That first Christmas, not everyone was happy at all. In fact, the world was dark and silent. The earth was covered with all kinds of suffering and pain.
God knew our pain. He understood our tears. He looked at the world and saw people who are lost and hurt and falling into despair. He saw our broken hearts and so He did that one thing no one ever thought He would.
God came down from heaven and became one of us. He became someone who can share our sorrows, someone who can weep with us, and therefore someone also who can comfort us in times when we feel most alone.
That first Christmas, God became a human being. Through Him, we found hope. And through Him, we believed that we were not alone.
I guess that’s why He was called “Immanuel”. Because God is truly with us. In our joys and in our sorrows. In our triumphs and in our failures. In life and even in death.
And this is the true reason for our joy.
We don’t celebrate because of Santa Claus and his gifts. We don’t celebrate because we’re supposed to attend exciting parties wearing our new set of clothes. We don’t celebrate just because everyone says we have to.
We are joyful because we have now found hope. In the midst of our darkness, there was light. As we cry our most painful tears, there is One who stands by our side.
We may not always be happy, but we can find joy in our hope and in our faith. We may not always be free from suffering, but we don’t suffer alone.
God has come for us. Let the true good news be proclaimed! This is what Christmas means after all.
Jocelyn Soriano is the author of “366 Days of Compassion”. Get this One Year Devotional as a gift for yourself and for your loved ones this coming year.
Get it from Amazon — click here.
Get it from other digital stores — click here.
Get a copy of this book today.
“The deepest wounds of the soul are healed only by compassion… People do not merely need to be clothed, they need to be embraced with love. A love that enters into their own fears and frailty, a love that suffers with them and stays with them through their darkest hour.”
You may also want to read:
Of Waves and Butterflies: Poems on Grief
Get my books from other digital stores — click here
Jocelyn Soriano is a Catholic devotional writer and poet. Aside from Medium, she also writes at I Take Off the Mask and Single Catholic Writer.
Thank you for this. Lot more people are less happy this Christmas than they would have been before. We often forget why we celebrate Christmas and confuse it for a retail holiday.