Christmas is surely meant to awaken in us the greatest genuine joy and gladness.
We sometimes work very hard at having a "merry Christmas." Yet, hanging over well-meant holiday festivity there's sometimes a cloud of disappointment. We're looking for something that we do not quite find. In our hearts, perhaps we suspect there must be more to Christmas than the commercial glitter, the human busyness. Could it be that what's needed is a fresh vision of what Christmas is really all about?
The Bible tells us, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Prov. 29:18. Spiritual vision is the ability to perceive the actuality and infinitude of God. To have spiritual vision is to begin to understand something of spiritual reality, of what life really is—God-given, immortal. This new vision of reality is utterly central to true Christmas, to why Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Utilizing such spiritual faculties as honesty, wisdom, and love in our daily living enables us to see that spiritual reality is never abstract. Spiritual vision always involves some measure of experiencing God's reality in our lives.
