In the following extract from his new Advent book, The One True Gift, Tim Chester looks at how encountering Christ afresh can restore peace and goodwill to your Christmas celebrations.
Christmas is supposed to be a time of “peace on earth and goodwill to all men”.
And we all fondly imagine our family gathered round a roaring fire. The children giggle as they play their board game. Your teenager is making a cup of tea for her grandmother. Your elderly neighbour is sitting happily in his new hand-knitted jumper. Then someone asks Grandad for an old story. You look across at your spouse and smile a smile of contented satisfaction. Peace and goodwill.
But the reality of Christmas can be very different! The children are fighting over the television remote. Your teenager only left her room after dire threats and is now sulking in the corner underneath her headphones. Your elderly neighbour isn’t there because he and Grandad refuse to be in the same room together. And you and your spouse are still not talking after last night’s argument. There’s little goodwill around and your only moment of peace comes when you take the dog for a walk.
Or perhaps these are problems that you’d love to have. But your Christmas will be tinged with grief and loneliness, not peace and goodwill, as you remember the relationships you’ve lost.
The one true gift radically alters our perspective on our grumbles and arguments
All too often Christmas descends into grumbling or arguing. You mutter under your breath about the shameless commercialisation, the competing crowds of shoppers, the dark, cold evenings. Your wife grumbles about the extra chores or your husband grumbles about visiting his in-laws. And you can’t get the children to do anything without an argument.
And then in Philippians 2 v 14 Paul says:
"Do everything without grumbling or arguing."
Paul doesn’t merely taunt us with an unattainable ideal. He wraps it up in a wonderful description of the one true Christmas gift—the Lord Jesus Christ. The one true gift radically alters our perspective on our grumbles and arguments.
Philippians 2 v 6-11 was probably an early Christian hymn. Whether Paul himself wrote it or whether he’s quoting lyrics familiar to his readers is unclear. Maybe he quotes an existing hymn, but adds his own tweaks for extra emphasis. We can’t be sure. What matters is that Paul and the Holy Spirit thought these were the words the Philippians needed to hear. And these are still words we need to hear.
Philippians 2 invites us to step into the Christmas story in a way that radically reshapes our attitudes.
You may not be able to change the behaviour of your family. There may still be arguments fizzing around this Christmas. But you can encounter Christ afresh this Christmas in a way that will make you a bearer of peace and goodwill.
The One True Gift is the third and latest in a successful series of Advent books by Tim Chester. Over 24 short daily readings for Advent, Tim Chester takes us deeper into Philippians 2 helping us to enjoy afresh God's gift to us at Christmas. Each day includes ideas for reflection, prayer and application, designed to excite you about the One True Gift—the Lord Jesus—in the run-up to Christmas Day.
Tim Chester is a senior faculty member of Crosslands Training and has written over 40 books. He has a PhD in theology and PgDip in history along with 25 years' experience of pastoral ministry. He is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in rural Derbyshire where he is part of a church plant.
