I can’t believe how fast Christmas got here.

When I hear myself say that, I realize that, yes, I am turning out to be my mother. I remember as a kid my mother (and father and grandparents and aunts and uncles and teachers–basically, all the adults in my circle of existence) saying the very same thing: Christmas got here so fast!

As a child, I never believed them, of course. Christmas always came painfully slow, and I never thought there would come a day I would share the sentiment that somehow Christmas could arrive too quickly.

Yeah, well.

I doubt I’m alone in feeling that fast-arriving Christmas is bittersweet this year. The joy of the season is tempered by a battered economy, job losses, war, uncertainty. I want to feel festive and merry, but sometimes I’m finding it difficult.

Until I realize that Jesus didn’t come to a festive and merry world. When He arrived in Israel, the country was occupied by Romans, the Jews had been looking for Messiah for hundreds of years (and he didn’t seem to be coming), and the covenanted people of God hadn’t heard from Him in a very long time. It was definitely not the best of times for the people of Israel.

And that’s the point. Jesus didn’t come because all was merry and bright. He came because it was not. Jesus, God with us, the light that shines in the darkness, is the one, true, good, eternally life-changing thing that happened in this often wreck of a world we live in. And His birth, His arrival here on earth, that we can celebrate and thank God the Father for, no matter what’s going on out there.

So, while the global mood might be putting a damper on my merrymaking, it has also uniquely and amazingly deepened the significance of Christ’s birth. I know the angel’s words "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people" sound extra sweet to me this year.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I truly mean that.