Move Beyond Christmas Melancholy
“So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:7).
If you’re reading this you made it through Christmas 2020. No small feat. It seems the year 2020 is the year that is taking years, for everything. As Christ-followers we believe Christ has made our hearts mangers to hold him in faith as our Savior from sin. It’s why he came that first cold Christmas. The only child actually born not to live but to die was the baby Jesus. Now, by faith in him, it really is Christmas 365 days a year no matter what we face.
However, even well-meaning Christians can let these things happen in their celebration of Christmas. Too much focus on the presents rather than his presence. The spirit of Christmas one ups the Spirit of Christ. We live at a pace with the parties and family gatherings and deadlines that leave us empty and barren. The result? Post-Christmas blues. Let’s call it - Christmas melancholy. If we are not careful it robs us of what we really have in Christ. So, what can help lift us up from a Christmas let down?
Try this. Think on a theology of adoption in the days ahead. Adoption is actually at the heart of the Christmas gospel. “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to son-ship 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:4-6).
Consider at times in 2021 what this means that our Father, with Jesus, has adopted us into his family. In fact, since the strongest foundation for any human to adopt another human is rooted in God adopting humans, go as far as considering similarities between what God did in adoption for us and what happens in Christian adoption today. Here are just two.
1. Adoption often means a change of family circumstances for the better. Comedian Jamie Ward was adopted by a loving father as a 3 year old boy. His friends will ask him, “Hey, since you were adopted, would you ever consider adoption?” His standard reply is, “Why, yes, of course?! Absolutely. If I ever have kids I want them to go to a good home.” It’s his light hearted way of saying at the heart of adoption, when it is right, is someone is taken from a less than desirable status to a better or blessed status.
God did not find us like a neatly abandoned bundled irresistibly cute baby on a door step. We are by nature rebellious, evil, and ugly. Still born in sin we are. Children that are not easy to deal with. Each a punk in our own depraved way. What’s worse, God the Father himself was rightly angry with us. He hates rebellion and sin according to his just justice. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23a).
But God in Christ-Jesus pursued us in adoption. “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 - to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to son-ship” (Galatians 3:4, 5). Because the crib of Christ was in the shadow of the cross where he went to bleed and die for us, we have been adopted into God’s family, receiving all the benefits and blessings as his children. Moreover, we are also full heirs of God’s rich inheritance, overflowing from his grace, mercy, and love. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). You are forgiven forever and loved always.
Talk about an upgrade - there is none better. The pattern has been set. Our heavenly adoption didn’t come from the best of situations and the reality is most earthly adoptions don’t today. The joy of Christmas is more readily remembered when one recalls through adoption my circumstances are far better than they were before. A pointer to that heavenly truth is the truth that the same is true for many an adopted child in an earthly family. This has a way of eliminating Christmas melancholy.
2. Adoption often is costly. What does it mean when we hear God tell us through the pen of Paul, “…to redeem those under the law…” (Galatians 4:4)? “To redeem” means to obtain or buy back by paying a price. It costs to redeem someone or something. What was the price that God paid for our liberation and adoption? In the previous chapter of Galatians that question is answered, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a pole” (Galatians 3:13). God the Father paid the highest price. Life for life. Blood for blood. His Son’s life for ours. Thankfully, adopting humans usually doesn’t come with that price tag but the costs are enormous. Some are financial. Many more are emotional.
Our dear friends the Hoeneckes went from America to Russia to pick up the children they made a loving choice to adopt. The trip itself was no picnic. On a recent visit to our home Rachel was recalling how she’ll never forget the flight home, holding their Alex in straight jacket but safe arms on the return flight in her lap. Fear of flying, fear of the unknown, whatever it was Alex just screamed and thrashed wildly most of the flight back. Imagine a frightened and embarrassed mom holding on to a young boy she just met to be her own trying to calm him with tears streaming down her face that say, “Lord, what have we got ourselves into?!”
And as any parent knows the costs in stress and time go on for the rest of your life in adopting children. You never stop being a parent until you die. So there is something very deep and right about the embrace of this cost for the life of a child! After all, it reflects the fact that to adopt someone as your own there is a price to be paid. God’s cost to adopt us was infinitely greater than any cost we will endure to adopt a child but in thinking this through I capture again in my heart the true meaning for Christmas. “For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given…” (Isaiah 9:2a), that we might be forever adopted into God’s family and even call him, “Daddy!”
In December of 2019 CNN reported that when five-year-old Michael showed up at the courthouse for an adoption hearing with his foster parents, he found a group of surprise visitors waiting - his entire kindergarten class. Michael’s teacher, Mrs. McKee got the idea when she encountered Michael’s foster mom dropping him off at school. The two of them devised a plan, and McKee organized the field trip, bus and all. The highlight of the day was during a portion of the hearing where the judge, who’d never hosted an entire kindergarten class before, asked all the students to explain why they were there in support.
As you can imagine there were some pretty touching answers. “I love Michael.” “Michael is my bestest friend.” “Michael makes me laugh - makes us all laugh.” “Michael lets me see his answers and makes me smart.” (Not too smart to admit that one!) But here was, in my opinion the best answer, “Michael has been adopted into his family. His parents love him. Soon it will be Christmas. If we all remember we are in a family at Christmas it can be Christmas all the time!” In Christ, through Christ, and because of Christ truer words could not have been spoken. Merry Christmas and move beyond any Christmas melancholy by thinking on adoption.