Being at Home with Jesus this Christmas

Juvenal Cervantes, Pastor
St. John’s United Church of Christ
December 2021, Newsletter

Perry Como’s “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays.” was released in 1954 and it still shows up on lists of favorite Christmas songs. And why not? Wherever Christmas is celebrated, making it home for that celebration is a universal theme. Nothing says Christmas like family making it home in time to be together.

Now that over two-thirds of the citizens of our country are vaccinated, a record number of individuals are expected to travel during the Christmas holiday season by car, train, or plane. On the other hand, many of us may not be able to travel this year to invest time with family. A multitude of people experienced loss due to Covid-19. A little over a year ago our family said “Until then” to my stepfather who passed away from complications related to coronavirus. At St. John’s UCC, we celebrated the love of family members and friends who left us ahead of time.

Additionally, there are two ways to think about the phrase, “Make it home for the holidays.” First, there is the traditional way—traveling back home and joining family and friends for the celebration. But there’s another way: Make “it”—the place where you are, wherever that place is—your “home” for the holiday. A marquee in Grand Junction, Colorado, announced, “Paradise is not a place out there, it is a state of the heart.”

Is that possible? Of course, it is! We can think creatively about what “home for Christmas” really means.

Here’s the key: Christmas means celebrating Christ. So wherever He is, we can celebrate Him. And if He is living in us, wherever we are this Christmas can be our holiday home. Home was wherever Jesus was. And the same can be true for us.

Robert Boyd Munger’s 1951 devotional piece, My Heart Christ’s Home, beautifully illustrates the biblical idea that Christ wants to make our heart His home (Ephesians 3:16-17; Revelation 3:20). So even if we can’t be in our family home, we can still be at home with Christ for Christmas regardless of where we are.

The very first Christmas is the best illustration of how to be “away from home” and “at home” at the same time.

Mary and Joseph were far from their earthly home on that first Christmas. They were separated from all that was familiar and comfortable for them in Nazareth. They had traveled some ninety miles to Bethlehem with Mary on the verge of giving birth. And even when they arrived, the best they could do to create a home was to sleep in a stable—possibly a cave where animals were kept. Joseph, being a woodworker, would no doubt have made a crib in Nazareth for their Baby. But in their Bethlehem “home,” they had to lay Him in a manger—a feeding trough for animals.

Imagine with me, however, the joy they experienced when the Christ-Child turned their stable into their very own Christmas home. The angels rejoiced; the shepherds rejoiced; and when the Magi arrived later, they rejoiced and worshiped as well. The presence of Jesus made all the difference. Home was wherever Jesus was. And the same can be true for us.

And consider Jesus Himself. He left His heavenly home and came to earth to make it possible for us to return to our eternal home with Him. Truly, Jesus is our “home”—whenever and wherever we are.

If you are facing the possibility of being separated from loved ones this holiday season, I invite you to look to God’s word to give you fresh insights on what it means to “make it home for Christmas”!