Counterfeit Christmas: Substitution for the Real Thing

The season between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a time of preparation known as Advent. Advent means “coming”. This is a season of preparation for Christ’s coming into our lives and into our world. The first Christmas was about God coming into our world so that we could know God and have peace, love, joy, and hope. Our celebration and participation in Christmas should be a time filled with hope, love, peace and joy. Yet, we often settle for less than the real thing and substitute things like stress, worry, bitterness, grief, fighting, apathy and emptiness in their place. We have a tendency and the temptation to make the season about decorations, shopping, busy schedules, overspending, empty rituals or anything other than Christ coming to us. We accept a counterfeit replacement for the real thing. How might we use this season of preparation for Christ coming to help us experience real Christmas and Christ indwelling presence in our lives? Counterfeit Christmas is an Advent message series to help us prepare to receive the real gift of Christ coming into our world. Light in our darkness. Real Hope. Real love. Real Joy. Real peace. Real Christmas.