The Advent of Love

One of the most interesting things to me when thinking about how the ‘holiday season’ has changed over the past couple decades is how much we’ve given over Christmas storytelling to stories of love and romance. It’s almost as though in translating our cultural ideas of childhood wonder, awe, and magic associated with Christmas into the adult sphere, we’ve had no better place to impart it than in the hope of compelling and fulfilling romantic relationships. This probably doesn’t say much about the quality of our relationships as a society — either that or how out-sized our expectations for them have become — that we put our hopes for good, loving relationships in the category of magical, wishful thinking! But, even if our ideas about it have become a bit skewed, our storytelling does have one thing right: the Christmas season is truly about love.

I’m reminded now of one of my favourite recent Christmas songs — one I wish would be firmly adopted into the canon of Christmas songs everyone knows: “Love is Christmas” by Sara Bareilles. Its lyrics point to how love truly plays out this time of year, not in stolen kisses on a blanket of snow, but in the simple fact of being together with our loved ones. I think the song is worth quoting in full here:

I don’t care if the house is packed or the strings of light are broken
I don’t care if the gifts are wrapped or there’s nothing here to open
Love is not a toy, and no paper will conceal it
Love is simply joy that I’m home

I don’t care if the carpet’s stained; we’ve got food upon our table
I don’t care if it’s gonna rain, our little room is warm and stable
Love is who we are, and no season can contain it
Love would never fall for that

We sing (oo oo oo): Let love lead us, love is Christmas

Why so scared that you’ll mess it up? When perfection keeps you haunted
All we need is your best my love, that’s all anyone ever wanted
Love is how we do, let no judgment overrule it
Love I look to you,

And I sing: Let love lead us, love is Christmas
Let love lead us, love is Christmas (Sara Bareilles (c) 2011)

What I love about these lyrics is how in stripping the Christmas season of its magical glamour, it reveals the deep realities hidden below the sparkling surface, the real magic of the season. It’s not the gift, it’s the being thought of that’s important. It’s not the perfect Martha Stewart feast, it’s breaking bread together. It’s not a magic that’s on the surface or just for show. It’s an everyday magic all around us, if we just have eyes to see it.

I wonder if the same can be said for the theological dimensions of the holiday. The Christmas story certainly involves more than its share of awe and wonder: angelic messengers, a heavenly army, foreign dignitaries, and evil plots. But, stripped of all that, it’s the story of a baby, born like any other in water and blood, into poverty among an oppressed people, under the shadow of scandal. And our claim as Christians is that this baby is the greatest revelation of God’s love possible. It’s a bit like the prophet Elijah’s theophany on the mountain: God wasn’t in the big and showy, but in the humble and simple. The real miracle of Christmas is that the magic is in the mundane.

And so, as we enter these last days of Advent, with all its busyness of final preparations and travels, may we remember that focusing on making the ‘perfect’ Christmas is the best way of robbing it of its joy. May we remember to be present, to rest in the hope, peace, joy, and love of the season.

Let love lead us, love is Christmas.