All I Want for Christmas is You

{by Rachel Coker}

So, it’s that time of year. Wherever you go all you can hear playing are bad remakes of classic Christmas songs. Like Justin Bieber or Jessica Simpson singing “Silent Night”. This kind of annoys me, but I manage to tolerate it for 25 out of 365 days, for the sake of “Christmas joy”.

At the risk of sounding like some kind of unsentimental freak, I have to admit that my favorite Christmas album is Mariah Carey’s. Yes, more than Perry Como and Bing Crosby. There’s just something about her music that makes me want to jump around and throw stuff onto the tree because I’m just so full of yuletide joy. Yeah, it’s weird.

Anyway, the other day I was listening to her song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on my computer. I was singing along quietly (so that my family can’t hear my off-key attempts at the high notes), when suddenly it dawned on me: I only want one person for Christmas too. And that is Jesus Christ. (Albeit, I could probably also add a small handful of good looking actors, but I’ll keep them out of this for now…)

The more I mulled over this thought, the clearer it became to me that all I want for Christmas is HIM. I don’t need presents to make me happy this Christmas. Or snow, or stockings, or mistletoe. I definitely don’t need some prince charming to come in and sweep me off my feet, filling me with holiday joy and warm fuzzy feelings. All I really desire is to be filled with the love and joy of Christ.

Even though Christmas is a Christian holiday, I think it is the hands-down easiest holiday to forget about Christ on. There’s so much going on that can distract us from what this season is really about. We run around and waste time on silly things that we wrongly think are important. We get hung up, like Mariah Carey, on thinking selfishly about what and who we want this year. But all we should really want is Christ.

Christmas isn’t a time for greed and business. It’s a time for slowing down and getting back to the basic truth of Christianity: desiring God. Wanting to know Him and be near to Him, and being thankful for what He did for us. Because, if you think about it, His salvation is the only gift we can know for sure we can get this year, no matter how naughty we’ve been! ;)