Christmas is more than family

Christmas is overwhelmingly seen, at least where I am, as a time to gather with your immediate and extended family. And while this is a worthy purpose for a holiday that almost everyone observes, it tends to obscure its greater, profound, and universal purpose: salvation for all who will, healing, mercy, love from God for all His children, eternal hope, and sacrifice.

The intense focus on gathering with family at Christmas, so that Christmas = family, to many, is perhaps one of those ways in which good things take the place of ‘best’ things. This is not because families are not important, which they are, but because they aren’t actually the real focus of this celebration and remembrance. This focus arises from tradition, and it’s become even more emphasised as the religious meaning of Christmas has been pushed into the background, and lost, for so many. It’s safe and acceptable, in our culture(s), to have a holiday focused on family. This is a value most can get around. It’s much more acceptable than a celebration of God’s love, Jesus Christ, miracles, salvation, the need for repentance, hope for another world, and reflecting on the whole purpose of life.

The gifts we exchange within families aren’t symbolic of the gifts the wise men from the East gave the Christ child and His family. They represent the gift God has given to us: His Son, Jesus Christ, as our Saviour, and the gift that our Saviour Himself gave to us: His life as a ransom for sin; His Atonement as a sacrifice for our eternal salvation.

For those who have difficult family situations, or don’t live near their families, this intense focus can make us feel like we’re lacking for not really looking forward to that family gathering aspect, or for not being able to have it at all. Like we maybe can’t celebrate Christmas very well, because – well, Christmas is for families. How many people in the world are in this situation? I think there must be many. Are those without these concerns going to exclude them, unintentionally, because they’re content and fulfilled with their situation, and therefore so focused on gathering with their families that this becomes their main goal at Christmas? “Christmas is for family” – is it? Or is it for Christ, and every person on earth?

As I said, family is a good thing – a good way to celebrate God’s gifts, and an important thing to nurture when it exists. And our family members are those we can most directly help and love, often. But in the context of Christmas, family is (or can be) just this: a good thing, not the main thing. Lest we overstate the value of family-gathering at Christmas, let’s look at what ‘family’ and the gift of a Saviour actually mean.

1. Christ came to save the whole human family – all the descendants of Adam and Eve. We speak also of the family of Abraham: those to whom the promise comes; the covenant made between God and Abraham that all the families (peoples) of the earth would be blessed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ – specifically the saving power of ordinances performed through priesthood authority. So what is ‘family’, in this sense? It is everyone on earth. Everyone who lives will be resurrected – this is the first gift. Everyone who comes to Christ and allows Him to change their heart, becoming connected to Him through saving ordinances and the ongoing process of repentance, will be saved from sin and darkness and hell, and receive eternal life. This is the second, and greatest, gift.
2. Jesus Christ healed and taught everyone who would listen or who needed it and had sufficient faith in Him. Those cast out from a society which had become rigid and blind in its keeping of the Law given to point men to Christ, many of whose leaders now used it as a weapon for their own purposes. Those who were distraught, lost, suffering, and in any way in need. The rich and the respected. You and me.
3. Our family is everyone – our brothers and sisters – on earth, and in the spirit world. Our purpose as disciples of Christ is to share the Gospel with everyone we can; to bring the light of Christ to all.

We can meet our Saviour from where we are. We can receive His mercy and his gift of redemption within our own lives, one-to-one. Christmas is about me, and you, and each person we meet. It’s not just about families. It’s about Christ, and the whole human race. It’s about reconciliation between man and God. It’s about the beauty of hard things made light, despair turned to hope, distress turned to peace. It’s about possibility, and eternal, infinite love. It’s about every thing that doesn’t fit, that isn’t fair, made whole and right. This is why the angels came to sing, why the star shone, and why every prophet from Adam foretold the Saviour’s mortal birth.

If you can gather with a family and share a big meal at Christmas, that’s a lovely blessing to be grateful for. But Christmas is a celebration of Christ, not of family. Let’s not forget this, in the way we talk of it, how we keep it, and how we think of it.

A blessed Christmas to all.