What is Love?

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse… 

Hold it, hold it! What is it with the Christmas opening? It isn’t Christmas! Not even in Greytown! The mid-winter Christmas month is over, okay? Or is it?

The opening line of that famous poem, A Visit from St Nicholas by Clement Moore, 1822, invites anticipation and excitement. Ears tune in, hearts are open for whatever comes next. 

What is it about Christmas that stirs the heart or causes dread, depending on what life experiences we have had to date? The Christmas story itself is one of such love, joy, hope and expectation. Is it about gifts, trees, shopping, coloured lights and family gatherings? Yes, it absolutely is, if these ways of delighting in the Christmas story help bring it alive, create family traditions and memories. Yes, if these things are all from a heart of love. Love is what the whole Christmas story is all about. 

A story of love, sacrifice, compassion, restoration, healing and life. It is a story about the love of the Father for humanity. Now that is something to celebrate. What that looks like for each of us will be different. 

The last weekend in July marked the final weekend of the month long mid-winter Christmas festival in Greytown. It is such a delight to see the shops lit up with festoon lights, garlands and all sorts of expressions of what a midwinter Christmas looks like. Night markets, food stalls, Christmas music and mulled wine. All capped off with fireworks on the last night.

The smiles on the faces of both children and adults are truly something to behold. A very European experience. Especially when the snow cascades over the crowd gathered under the balcony of the town hall and lands on upturned faces, hats, hair and winter coats. Very special. Hands and bodies doing the rotisserie experience around gas burners. Hot air ballon baskets flare up their massive burners to light up the atmosphere and warm the crowd. 

When do we ever rug up in the middle of winter, at sometimes, below minus temperatures, to gather with family and friends outdoors at night? 

Christmas in the southern hemisphere is an entirely different experience. For us Christmas is sun, sand, surf, barbecues, long, light days. Therefore a summer Christmas experience is quite a different thing. No less full of love, laughter and family time, but a totally unique experience from the Northern Hemisphere. 

Recently arrived New Zealanders, originally from other nations have asked me why New Zealanders don’t make much of a fuss of Christmas? Why don’t our stores decorate and light up for Christmas? When it is pointed out that we absolutely do make a fuss of Christmas, but in a different way and at that time of year we are experiencing long days. For us to see lights and enjoy them, we would have to wait up until 10pm at night. That’s the reason I no longer have solar lights outside for the summer. I’m never up late enough to see them! 

Really, what does the word ‘Christmas’ evoke in each one of us? Is it sadness, irritation, delight, excitement? Is it Christ’s Mass, the delight in the reminder of God coming to earth as a human, to reveal his love for his people? To reveal to us, through his son, Jesus, the Father’s love and His nature? 

Whatever Christmas stirs up in each of us, the bottom line is this, Christmas is about love. Love for one another. Unconditional love. 

What does unconditional love look like? The Apostle Paul gives us perhaps the best definition…Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Whether we celebrate love with coloured lights, Christmas music and night markets in the middle of winter, or whether we feel the only time and place is literally on the marked day, the essence, meaning and heart of Christmas, is love! 

May every day be Christmas in our hearts as we love each other well.