More and more people are struggling to find spiritual enlightenment during Christmastime. With everything there is to accomplish—and of course, everything there is to purchase, wrap, bake, write, eat, and, if there’s time, enjoy—Christmas spirituality is becoming a sleeping beauty beneath the skirt of the Christmas tree.
Every spiritual journey is unique to each individual’s experience. Regardless of one’s personal beliefs, Christmas lends itself to spiritual growth and development because of the very nature of the holiday’s meaning. Whether you focus on the origins of Santa Claus (which is far more spiritual than most people realize) or the birth and life of Christ, Christmas is a time for spiritual rebirth.
The Spiritual Meaning of Christmas
Most of us are familiar with the Christmas story: Mary and Joseph searched through inns and establishments for a place to give birth to baby Jesus, ultimately finding refuge in a barn. Jesus was born, and his birth was heralded far and wide as the son of God. Depending on where you are in your spiritual journey, you may accept every word of the Christmas story literally, give it basic credence, or view the whole thing as a fairy tale that couldn’t possibly have happened. Regardless, on Christmas Day, we celebrate the birth of a man who wandered the earth reaching out to the lonely, the sick, the disturbed, and the impoverished, teaching them how to live in the light.
That light is undeniably eternal. We all seek it, rely on it in our darkest moments, and celebrate its power as it enters our lives. Whether we recognize it as God or call it by another name, nearly all of us are drawn to it. This light, this spirituality, is Christmas. It is the guidance that, once a year, we are fortunate enough to embrace, celebrate, and walk in.
As we offer our families Christmas nourishment and provide them with peaceful devotion, we exude that Christmas light a little stronger and with greater commitment.
We are, of course, human. There are Christmas seasons when we struggle to feel or emit the light as strongly as we have in the past. During those Christmases when the light seems absent, we feel its absence profoundly. Those with stronger faith may feel this absence less often, but it can happen to anyone. Sometimes the stress and distractions of the season can cloud the light just enough that, if we’re not careful, we might miss it completely.
Taking time each day to soak in the light during the Christmas season can help ensure its presence throughout the entire process. Quiet spiritual moments in the early dawn hours or the stillness of the night can ground us, center us in that light, and keep it a part of our actions, thoughts, and feelings every day.
The story of Jesus and the life he led on earth carries powerful meanings and messages that apply to our daily lives. Many of us missed it. As children, these concepts were often not passed down in a way that we could truly understand. We sat through classes we didn’t quite grasp, and we had an idea of prayer, but we were never really taught the emotional connection that could be formed through a spiritual life. We memorized prayers and stories, and we understood that Christmas was, in essence, “Jesus’ birthday.” However, as adults, we each reached a point where we could decide for ourselves where religion and spirituality fit into our daily lives. Those of us who chose to forgo spirituality have discovered that we feel its absence most acutely at Christmastime—more so than any other time of the year. The most wonderful and perfect aspect of this is that we have never truly missed the boat. The opportunity to embrace spirituality is always there for us, waiting for us to board and join others in their spiritual experiences, however that applies to us individually.
Christmas serves as our annual reminder that the light we choose to embrace, on whatever level we choose, is always available to us, burning as brightly as ever. For those of us who feel we don’t give enough attention to our spiritual health, Christmas is the perfect opportunity to explore it. For those who celebrate the light every day, Christmas provides the most powerfully explosive light we could ever imagine.
