May 15th is a special day; it's my fiance's birthday. This year, I already have in mind what I'm going to do to celebrate with her. This year for her birthday, I'm going to take her fishing. She doesn't really like fishing all that much, but I think it will still be a good time. We can have some good conversation while we're waiting for the fish to bite, and I can give her some nice compliments and tell her how beautiful she always looks while we're sitting there. It should be a great time. . . for me.
I like to fish, and in reality, if I were to really take her fishing for her birthday, she'd be pretty upset with me because:
1) she doesn't like to fish all that much
2) going fishing would be more for me than it would be for her
and
3) it's her birthday, not mine
When it comes to birthdays, it should always be more about celebrating the other person and doing what they want to do, rather than celebrating and treating their birthday like it's your own birthday. Birthdays should be times of selfless celebration of someone else. In my fiance and I's case, celebrating her birthday would look more like me taking her shopping, then out to a nice dinner followed by some spontaneous, adventurous activity. I would want to celebrate it in a way that was best for what she wanted, not what I want.
I feel like Christians, myself included, struggle with this same issue when it comes to celebrating Christmas, aka: Jesus' birthday. When it comes to celebrating Christmas, we try to turn it from His birthday into our own birthday just like Jesus turned water into wine. We easily become wrapped up in how we want to celebrate His birthday, more so than how He would want us to celebrate His birthday. It's so easy to take Christmas and turn it into our own party. We become obsessed with what we want, getting all our shopping done and what foods we're going to eat. None of these are bad things, but at the same time, they're things that become more about celebrating us than Him on His day. We become content with going to a service on Christmas Eve and saying a family prayer before the big meal, and then we're good to go. It bothers me just how much I've removed Christ from Christmas, as cliche as that sounds.
When it comes to Christmas this year, I want to be able to slow down enough to put into practice the answer to the question: How would Jesus want want His birthday celebrated?
I think Jesus would want His birthday celebrated by us serving others, just as He came and served us. He came and "though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, by taking the form a a servent, being born in the likeness of man" (Phil. 2:6-7).
This Christmas, try to remember that you aren't celebrating your birthday; you're celebrating His. Try not to get wrapped up in how perfect you want everything, and instead get wrapped up in delighting to be a servant to those around you.
Have a Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: Don't be that guy that tries to turn someone else's party into your own.