EP 105: The Reason for This Season

I love all the bright lights and decorated trees and beautiful packages and cheerful songs that so characterize Christmas in so many people’s minds, but if we miss the real reason behind all those things, we’ll miss the whole purpose and most important part of the season.

The Reason for this Season

complete transcript for Episode 105

Hello, Friend.

Welcome to Episode 105 of Loving Life at Home. I took a much longer break from podcasting than I intended. First we had Thanksgiving, then two days later, we hosted a wedding. Then all my kids got really sick for about two weeks – though my husband and I were mercifully spared. Then we all spent last week in San Antonio hanging out with family, playing games, seeing sights, shopping Christmas markets, visiting the Alamo and the riverwalk, exploring museums, and attending holiday concerts and walk-through nativities, and now, we are back at home, and Christmas is only a day away. Can you believe it?

Nevertheless, I didn’t want to let the day pass – or the year end – without recording a special episode for the occasion.

I love all the bright lights and decorated trees and beautiful packages and cheerful songs that so characterize Christmas in so many people’s minds, but if we miss the real reason behind all those things, we’ll miss the whole purpose and most important part of the season.

Christmas Lights

So let all those twinkling lights remind you of the magnificent star God sent to proclaim Messiah’s birth, as we read in Matthew 2:9-10, and the fact that Jesus Himself is the Light of the world (see John 8:12), and that He bids believers to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16)

Christmas Trees

Let all those tall and stately evergreen trees serve as a reminder of the everlasting life God promises to those who put their faith in Christ (John 3:16), and of the blessings that await all who walk in His Way and delight in His Word and meditate in His law day and night: For, as Psalm 1:2-3 so beautifully describes, “he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:2-3) His leaf doesn’t wither… that sounds like an evergreen to me — or maybe a live oak – doesn’t it to you?

Christmas Songs

And then all the Christmas music! Let that remind you of what the angel choirs sang on the first Christmas: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men.” Okay, so maybe they didn’t sing it. The Bible actually just tells us they said it, but it all sounds so wonderful set to music. In fact, the very first solo I ever sang was when I was 10 years old and played the part of an angel in our school’s Christmas pageant. My lines came straight from Luke 2:10-12, but they were set to music, which made memorizing them a snap. Really. I sang it once in practice and had it down pat (which is why I still use music to make Bible memory easier. I did an entire podcast episode on that which I’ll link in the show notes). Anyway, 50 years later, I can still sing that solo verbatim: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings [good tidings] of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” The solo lasted all of 25 seconds, but I’ve been hooked on Christmas music and carols ever since. I listen to them all year long – that old debate on whether it’s appropriate to play carols before December is completely lost on me. I’ve been known to crank them up on my car stereo in the middle of July and belt out the tunes as I drive about town.” Ephesians 5:19 implores us to “[Speak] to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”  And Christmas carols can help us do exactly that!

Which brings me to my next topic… Christmas letters!

Christmas Cards

Even Christmas letters! If you’ve been listening to this podcast for long, you probably already know I’m a big fan of the newsy family updates that arrive in our daily mail starting the day after Thanksgiving. Seriously, I have two friends whose letters are delivered, never fail, on Friday while the rest of our family is still digesting that fabulous feast from the day before.

I’ve occasionally gotten my own Christmas cards in the mail before Thanksgiving, but 2025 has certainly not been one of those years. I did have the letter printed beforehand and the photos developed the day after, but when the flu hit our family, it delayed everything else, so the last few stragglers – letters that required my tracking down a new address before sending – are going out today.

The good news is, I finally got the online version posted to our family website yesterday, which I’ll link in the show notes, along with my book Glad Tidings, which contains our first 25 years of Christmas letters, if you happen to be interested.

I know it sounds a little weird to think anybody would want to read annual updates from complete strangers, but we sometimes get requests from folks we’ve never even met – I got another one just last week, in fact – asking to be put on our mailing list (that’s one reason I post it online), and we have other friends who tell us they save all our old letters in a 3-ring binder and add the newest addition to it every year (which is one reason I’ve now published a hard copy collection, as well). And multiple people have told us they read our letters aloud to family and friends every year or even to co-workers at their annual office party.

Anyway – that’s way more information than I need to make my point, which is the fact that even newsy Christmas updates are reflective of the fact that God has written a lengthy letter to us called the Bible.

I know that not everybody loves my letters. Some people find them boring and use them to put themselves to sleep at night, as one of my husband’s colleagues conspiratorially confessed to me that he does. (He may’ve assumed Doug writes our updates, but if he did, he was wrong.) I imagine some of our letters languish unopened on the desk or get lost in the shuffle or wind up in the trash along with so much torn wrapping paper on Christmas morning.

And all of that is fine with me.

But none of us can afford to treat God’s Word with such carelessness. We need to open it daily. To read it. Study it. Cherish it. And apply it to our lives. It is His love letter to us, and it contains everything we need to know Him intimately and to live according to His plan.

Furthermore, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3:3 that we ourselves “are a letter of Christ… written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Many times, unbelievers will study and observe the Christians around them long before they ever crack open a Bible for themselves. So we want the letter of Christ that is our life to be an accurate reflection of His life and character. It reminds me of a little poem I heard back in high school:

Isn’t that convicting? That brings me to my last topic, which is…

Christmas Gifts

Let all those brightly wrapped packages remind you first of the costly gifts the wise men set before the Christ child, as recorded in Matthew 2:11: they brought Jesus frankincense, gold, and myrrh.

According to my dictionary, frankinsence is “an aromatic gum resin obtained from an African tree and burned as incense.”

Gold, of course, was a precious metal as highly prized in Christ’s time as it is in ours. I don’t know how expensive it was back then, but when I looked it up this morning, it is currently selling for over forty-three hundred dollars per ounce ($4,300/ oz)!

And myrrh (that’s m-y-r-r-h: a word nearly stumped me in Wordle earlier this week. Do you ever play Wordle? It took me five guesses to solve that one, when I can normally get it in 2 or 3 – today’s took me 4, so maybe I’m slipping) But according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, myrrh is also a fragrant gum resin obtained from various Arabian and African trees and used in incense, but also in perfumery and medicines.

But as precious and expensive as all those gifts were, the most important gift was not laid before the manger but placed inside it. And that gift is Christ Himself. Sent to set the captives free (Luke 4:18) and to take away the sins of the world. (John 1:29)

Some people, when they don’t get exactly what they want for Christmas, go out and buy it themselves after the holidays. But this is one instance nobody can do that. Salvation is not something we can ever earn ourselves. The price is too high for any of us to pay. We all fall short of the mark. There is only one way: Either you receive the gift freely by placing full faith in the Giver, or you don’t get it at all.

My husband wrote a wonderful post on this topic over a decade ago. You may not realize it, but he has a blog too called All Truth Is God’s Truth, which I’ll link in the show notes. He’s also written several books – I’ll link those too – and I kind of think this post may have originally been published in one of his devotional guides, because he included a bunch of discussion questions, which he used to write for small group meetings at the request of the elders at our church. Anyway, I’d like to close today by reading this post, which he entitled, Christmas: A Season for Receiving.

Incidentally, I learned something new this morning while I was trying to track down his original article. According to Bing AI, “in the context of sports, particularly in the NFL, ‘a season for receiving’ often refers to the performance of players who excel in receiving yards during that season.’

I’m not 100% sure Doug had that sports reference in mind when he titled this post, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if that were the case. Either way, the play on words was totally lost on me when I first read it – and for 11 years after the fact. He begins by quoting Isaiah 9:6,

“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. 
And His name will be called
 Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” 

Then he writes…

Christmas: A Season for Receiving

Original post written by Doug flanders, M.D. (reprinted here with permission)

“ We all know that Christmas is the season for giving. That giving is, of course, a reflection of the greatest gift of all, God’s Son, who was announced in the prophecy above, fulfilled in the Gospels (“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” – John 3:16, NASB), and then explained in the Epistles (“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” – Ephesians 2:8, NIV).

The idea of gifts and giving is woven throughout Scripture, where Paul, quoting Jesus, admonishes us, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” – Acts 20:35, NASB.

Furthermore, our society reinforces the importance of giving with tales of stingy givers such as Ebenezer Scrooge or the Grinch who stole Christmas.

From the time we are little, we are taught the importance of giving. What is seldom emphasized is the importance of receiving!

The Opposite of Receiving is Rejecting

In sports we say, “The only thing worse than a poor loser, is a poor winner.” In the arena of giving, the only thing worse than a poor giver, is a poor receiver.

Consider the story of Jesus washing His disciples feet. At first, Peter attempts to reject Jesus’ act of service: “‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’” – John 13:8, NIV.

Oh, how true that is for all of us! How many lives are there yet, where Jesus stands at the ready, towel in hand, waiting to wash them whiter than snow, only to be rebuffed by the prideful claim, “You shall never wash me!”

To gain a glimpse of the sorrow this must bring to our Lord, reflect on a time when you have had a gift rejected by someone you cared about:

• Was it a physical gift?
• Was it an act of service that was rejected?
• What about unreturned friendship or affection?

But lest we become too prideful reminiscing about others, let us think of a time when we have rejected a gift ourselves:

• Did we have “a good reason” at the time?
• Does that reason hold up under the lens of hindsight?
• How big a role did pride play?
• Are the American ideals (idols?) of self-sufficiency and independence God- honoring? Can they be God honoring in the right context? Where do we draw the line?

Becoming a Good Receiver

We all know that a good giver gives generously, cheerfully (2 Corinthians 9:7), and often until it hurts (Mark 12:41-44). But what does it mean to be a good receiver?

There are FOUR things that are essential:

1 – A good receiver is HUMBLE

It is a humbling thing to freely receive something from someone else, whether that someone else is a fellow human being or God Himself. It sometimes feels like weakness or neediness, but humility is always the starting point.

“If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves…” begins 2 Chronicles 7:14, NIV.

Likewise, it is only in humbly recognizing that “all have sinned and fall short” (Romans 3:23, NET) that we acknowledge our need for a Savior.

Atheists will say, “God is for the weak.” To which we may respond, “Yes. Yes, He is, and thankfully so!”

Discussion Questions:

• Do you know non-Christians who think that they are “good people?”
• Do they think that being good is “good enough?”
• As Christians, do our actions and attitudes sometimes reveal similar beliefs about ourselves as good people relying on good behavior for what is actually freely given Grace?

2 – A good receiver is THANKFUL.

The natural response to a gift should be gratitude. [I’ve always found this quote by Robert Brault convicting: “There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed. If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude.”]

Discussion Questions:

• Have you ever seen a child or adult act ungratefully?
• Have we ever been guilty of doing the same?
• What about the gifts God bestows, are they simply taken for granted?
• What about the hard times that come our way, but cause us to grow? Are we thankful for our trials as well? (James 1:2-3) [Incidentally, I dedicated a podcast to this idea of giving thanks through hardship, which I’ll link in the show notes. Doug continues by noting that, third…]

3 – A good receiver actually USES the gift.

Nothing makes us happier than seeing our gifts to someone else being put to use. No doubt God feels the same way!

Discussion Questions:

• Have you ever given a child a toy they just couldn’t stop playing with?
• Alternatively, have you ever found last year’s gifts unused in a drawer?
• Are we using the gifts God has given us, or are they tucked away?

4 – A good receiver PAYS IT FORWARD.

When we have been blessed, it naturally makes us want to bless others. Even the most ruthless businessmen find themselves turning to philanthropy, as they grow older. Which takes us full circle, back to giving.

After Jesus finished washing the disciples feet, He told them, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” – John 13:14, NIV.

Discussion Questions:

• What are some ways we have been blessed?
• What are some ways we can bless others?
• How can we creatively introduce others to the “fount of every blessing,” who stands at the ready, towel in hand, waiting to wash them whiter than snow?

As we celebrate Christmas again this week, we need to remember that this season isn’t all about giving. It’s about receiving, too. God’s priceless gift will profit you nothing until you accept it.

What about you? Have you received the best gift of all?”

That’s the end of my husband’s post, but I want to reiterate the question. Have you accepted this gift God offers – the best gift of all – the gift of His Son, of full forgiveness through Him, and of eternal life with Him in heaven?

If not, then you’re missing the very best part of the Christmas season, the foundation upon which everything else we do rests.

If you have already received this gift with the humility and thankfulness my husband spoke of, I pray you’ll take every opportunity to share the good news with others and to shine as a light in the dark and dying world around you.

I hope to be back next week to discuss new year’s plans and goals and resolutions! Until then, I extend my best wishes for a very merry – and meaningful – Christmas for you and all your loved ones. Thanks for listening.