Ho Ho Home?

In a season marked by festive smiles and equally-bright trees, there exists an underlying darkness and depression. Behind every lit-up facade on a tree is the murky, shadowy expanse of intersecting branches, hidden behind pine needles. Likewise, behind most every smile is the knowledge that there are real problems that are often brushed aside by the Christmas season.

The Christmas season involves not only a brushing aside of those uglier aspects of one's family life and relationships, but also the perpetuation of those uglier aspects. That is why the caseloads of many psychiatrists and pastors goes up drastically during this time of year. Everybody is forced to view the hallmark ideal and present grotesque reality side-by-side and the contrast is pronounced.

While there are obviously many negative trends that have a malevolent impact of the typical family, there is a more subtle problem that must be addressed: unrealistic expectations. People expect the ideal home, but only get the painful counterfeit. Like in all areas of life, the family provides another example of a God-given institution horribly twisted by sin and its effects. This is true of every family, and when this fact is ignored or brushed-aside, the result is a counterfeit beauty--one that seeks to imitate the heavenly home but fails horribly in this effort. This result is natural, considering the reality of sin.

Instead of idealizing the home, we should affix our eyes to the true meaning of Christmas--a Savior who was born in our sinful home, that we might share in His perfect, heavenly world. He was born in the muck and mire of a manger, that we might know a day without tears. Instead of growing depressed over our counterfeit Christmastime beauty, we should yearn for the heavenly home that awaits the sin-stranded orphans of the world who follow Christ by faith.