Heaven is Christmas that doesn't end

The sadness at the end of a joyful season teaches me something about future eternal joys and reunions that will have no end.

Photo by Thandy Yung on Unsplash

I never want Christmas to end. Not when I was young, and not now either.

Monique teases me when, occasionally in February or April or August, I stop resisting the urge to pop on Tommy Profit’s beautiful O Holy Night David Archuleta’s Silent Night. How could you ever keep such beautiful creatures confined to only 30 days in the year?

I appreciate critics of America’s Christmas. Yet the anticipation, the build-up, the relish - looks on my kids’ face, and delight - feels more like a heavenly moment than crass consumerism alone.

If “all things bear witness of Christ,” what do these moments of delight bear witness to?

Maybe what lies ahead for all of us.

An eternal Christmas to come

The life of a disciple is filled with similar anticipation and build-up for a delight to come.

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,” Paul writes the people in Corinth - himself channeling Isaiah who taught 700 years earlier, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.”

Doesn’t that sound a bit like kids eagerly anticipating Christmas time?

It isn’t quite the same, of course, because on every level, Christmas has to end.

The year the legos stopped

Every year since my boys became toddlers, legos were the highlight and pinnacle of Christmas-time - with a new lego set prompting predictable shrieks of delight. Immediately, within seconds, the box would be torn open - and bags of legos foreshadowing hours of building fun.

Until this year. No legos even came up on Christmas lists, now filled with basketball. That hit me walking through Walmart this week - with a wave of grief coming momentarily…the same feeling I got one night when I realized my boys wouldn’t be interested in “wrestling with Dad” for much longer.

I’ve watched slowly as my oldest has gone from being thrilled with legos, to starting to realize he should expect socks for Christmas now.

Even for the excited younger ones, Christmas ends. I knew exactly what Sam was feeling when he said this morning, “I don’t think I have many more presents,” followed by a few seconds later. “I think there’s only one more present left for me.”

Five minutes later, “I don’t have any more.”

“I wish Christmas was started over,” Joshua added a few minutes later. “The day after Christmas is one of the saddest days.”

So … what if it didn’t have to end - this joy and love and peace?

The unending delights to come

Isaiah calls this “a joy of many generations”

Violence “shall no more be heard in thy land” and “the days of thy mourning shall be ended” - later saying,“The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying….the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.”

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”

This new earth is more than just a place with less sorrow and mourning, however. As the ancient prophet goes on to prophesy “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat … drink … rejoice” and “my servants shall sing for joy of heart.”

“Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create,” he says, explaining that he’s working to create an entire community and people “rejoicing, and her people a joy.”

Sounds like Christmas to me?