The meaning of the Christmas season for most of us revolves around receiving and sharing happiness, kindness and acceptance, and most of all, rest and peace. However, just like the trees and decorations, these feelings, in particular the rest and peace, often come and go as quickly as the season itself. The dilemma for us is that we all want the rest and peace to continue.
For years, I hoped and tried to find rest and peace minus God. It doesn’t take too much time or too much prosperity to realize there’s no real and lasting fulfillment by getting married and living in a bigger house, driving a Porsche or Mercedes-Benz, or eating filet mignon. If this is all there is to life, then at the end you won’t find rest and peace, but disillusioned and hopeless.
Ok, so what if I add some religion to my prosperity? Maybe learning about God and cleaning up my bad habits by “being good” will bring some rest and peace my way. I knew it says in the Bible over and over that God gives His peace to anyone that asks, and that sounded great to me! This was the approach I used on and off for the majority of my life. Results: even worse! I became even more frustrated. I’m now prosperous and “good”, but embittered and still without rest and peace! I had no idea where to turn next…
But then Christmas really came to me.
“You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” These words of Saint Augustine were read and a light turned on. I went from wanting things from God to just wanting God. Through Jesus at Christmas, God comes to us and offers rest and peace through personally knowing and loving Him. This isn’t just verbiage; it is powerful and real. As I’ve grown closer to Him, I’ve finally understood what C.S. Lewis meant when he said “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.” Once we completely rest in Him, then true and unwavering peace is fully given and embraced while everything else seems smaller, knowing He can and will fix it all.
This is the real, lasting and fulfilling meaning of Christmas: that God came to us to offer a relationship with Him, and in doing so, we can have fulfilling rest and peace that won’t ever end.
“Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest’” (Matt 11:28, NLT).
