Look Up & Look Around This Christmas

Practical Ideas for Focusing on & Sharing God’s Love during Christmas 2020

Christmas is going to look a lot different for many people this year. Whether we’re facing minor inconveniences like activity restrictions and travel cancellations, or deep needs and heartbreaking loss, this is a Christmas like no other. In one way, it’s a fitting end to a year that has been like no other.

In other ways, however, we’re all struggling with the “I wish” of Christmas 2020. I wish my loved one wasn’t in the hospital. I wish we could visit Grandma in the nursing home. I wish we could have our annual Christmas party. I wish things were different.

It’s been a year to expect the unexpected. But there is good news! In the midst of all the chaos, the meaning of Christmas hasn’t changed!

And the story of Christmas is full of more unexpected twists than even 2020. A barren woman expecting a child in her old age, a virgin giving birth, the lowly shepherds being the first to hear of the birth of the Messiah, wisemen bringing Him gifts. And the greatest, unexpected, radical gift of all: the high and holy God became human, wrapping His glory in a tiny baby’s body that was laid in a manger!

It’s a story of wonder, offering something wonderful to meditate on in all the craziness of this season. But it’s easy to lose sight of that wonder, especially when you read the news. How do we keep ourselves from losing the joy of Christmas in a year like ours?

One way is to stop looking around us at the stresses and disappointments, and to turn our gaze outward and upward. This Christmas season, let’s keep our eyes on the Greatest Story Ever Told, the good news of the advent of our Savior. When that is our focus, we will find the joy and hope we need to share that good news with others.

Here are some ideas we came up with to help you do just that.

Service Opportunities

Christmas may be different this year, but there are still plenty of opportunities to serve. Here are some ways you and your family can serve others this year – COVID-style!

• Make cookies for the mailman or package delivery driver
• Send cards/care packages to shut-ins or people in nursing homes
• Make and take a gift basket for your neighbors
• Host an ornament exchange in your neighborhood (You can do this without gathering! Ask neighbors to drop an ornament and Christmas card off at your house, then redistribute them to others who participated.)
• Offer to do a home project for an older person (cleaning house, raking leaves, technology help, etc.)
• Take a thank you gift to someone who serves the community (fire department, police officers, first responders, healthcare workers, etc.)
• Make a donation to a shelter, more than just a thrift store donation (for example, baby blankets to a crisis pregnancy center, toiletries/clothes/toys to a women’s shelter, etc.)

Advent Devotional

Read an Advent devotional series with your family. Yes, we’re already in December, but it’s not too late! You’ll still greatly benefit from turning your eyes to the Christmas story all month long. Here are some great options:

• Come, Let Us Adore Him by Paul Tripp – 24 Advent devotionals
  • Here are some videos by Tripp to accompany this.
• Good News of Great Joy by John Piper – 24 Advent meditations
• The Advent Jesse Tree – These 25 devotionals use Scripture readings and ornaments to tell the story of Jesus throughout the Old Testament in preparation for Christmas. There are lots of versions of this available, or you can print off coloring pages to make your own.
• Jesus Storybook Bible Advent readings – This is great for younger kids!
  • Here’s a free guide that shows you what to read if you already own the Jesus Storybook Bible.
  • If you don’t own the book, you can also buy the Christmas readings as a separate book here.

Personal Devotions

This is a great time to focus more intently on the incarnation and what it means for you personally in your daily devotions. Here are some special things you can do for your own Bible-reading time this month:

• Read through the whole book of Isaiah (only 2-3 chapters a day) and see how many prophecies of Christ’s coming there are.
• Work your way slowly through Luke 1-2 and Matthew 1, looking for things you have never seen before. Use the knowledge from our Old Testament series to see how Christ’s coming fulfilled all that the Old Testament figures longed for!
• Memorize a passage like Philippians 2:1-11, which connects Christ’s incarnation and death to how we should treat one another. This would be a great passage to have a Bible-memory competition with the whole family over December! We all need a reminder to “do nothing out of selfish ambition” this season.

Do you have additional ideas or family traditions that help you focus on serving others and looking to Jesus during the Christmas season? We would love to hear about them! Let us know how you are keeping the wonder of Christmas at the center of your celebrations in 2020!