The Lingering Lessons of Christmas

© December 28th, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Advent

As we gather today, the Christmas season is over. You may still have additional Christmas celebrations with family members, but for most, Christmas is over. Because there is so much build-up for Christmas, the end of the holiday also usually results in a fair bit of aftermath as well.

This is true on Christmas morning. I feel like it usually takes us a few days to reclaim our living room after our Christmas celebration. First, we have to deal with all the wrapping paper and boxes and dispose of them properly. Then we’ve got to find permanent homes for everyone’s new gifts. For a while, our house is pretty chaotic.

Something similar happens with regard to decorations. Different people have different views about when Christmas decorations should come down. Some take them down almost immediately, while others leave them up for a while longer. Some take everything down all at once, while others choose to slowly put things away a bit at a time. Still others seemingly leave their decorations up all year long. I think one year, though the decorations came off the tree fairly quickly, the tree itself didn’t come down until summer!

And that doesn’t even take into account what happens in our regular lives. Parents go back to work and kids eventually go back to school. By mid-January, it’s as though Christmas never happened, and it won’t be thought about again until around November.

While that’s just how the calendar (and life) works, from a spiritual perspective, we shouldn’t allow the things Christmas teaches us to simply be put away at the end of the season. We should continue to allow those lessons to impact us the whole year through. So this morning, we’re going to look at the lingering lessons of Christmas, in the hope that we will allow them to impact us long after all the decorations are back in storage and life returns to “normal.”

Lesson #1: Focus

Most of us struggle with focus during the Christmas season. Our schedules become crazy with all the different activities we want to participate in. And even during our Christmas celebrations, there is often such a flurry of activity that we don’t take time to reflect or notice the things that are most important. So one of the lingering lessons of Christmas ought to be the importance of focus.

We saw this in the Christmas story, as Mary and Joseph each had to recognize what was truly important in their lives. They had to focus on trusting God, rather than all the external noise that surrounded them. This is something each of us must also work to do, as there are many things that can distract us and pull us off course. Paul gives some excellent advice in this regard in 2 Corinthians 4.

18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:18, NLT)

In these verses, Paul was talking about dealing with the problems we encounter in this world. He talked about the frailty of our bodies, the hardships we face from others, and the struggles of living in a fallen world. These, and many other things, tend to clamor for our attention. There are any number of things that jump in front of us and shout, demanding we devote our time, energy, resources, and attention to them.

But Paul gives us a much better approach to take. Instead of fixing our eyes only on what we see in front of us, we should focus on the bigger picture. We should focus on eternal things, because Paul reminds us that these other things won’t last. In the end, they won’t really matter. So we should choose to focus on the things that do.

This is a lesson we should take from Christmas and not allow to leave us once the decorations are put away. We must each decide what we will devote our time and energy to. What will we make a priority in our lives and in the lives of our families? The world gives us all manner of things we should be focused on, but God’s Word tells us to live with an eternal perspective. Choose to focus on the things that will last, the things that matter, the things that are eternal, and that will be time well-spent.

Lesson #2: Trust

The second big lesson we learn from the Christmas story is that of trusting God. As I reflected on this familiar account this year, I was struck by how much Mary and Joseph had to trust God. Nothing went the way they would have expected. Time and time again, their lives were be disrupted in ways they didn’t anticipate, and they were constantly asked to trust God, even when they didn’t understand what He was doing.

I suppose this lesson resonates with me because it’s one I need to learn. I suspect I’m not alone in this. I cannot help but notice that our world is marked by an increasing anxiety anymore. People are more tense than ever, and many are paralyzed by the anxiety they feel.

I don’t claim to have all the answers for this, and I know there are probably multiple contributing factors to this rise in our world. But I also think we would find a great deal more peace if we worked at learning to trust God with the things we can’t anticipate or understand, instead of inwardly churning when things don’t go the way we envisioned or expected.

Admittedly, this is easier said than done. But we can learn something from Mary. Mary’s response to everything she was told was wonderfully faithful. She simply said, “I am the Lord’s servant, may everything you have said about me come true.” She trusted the Lord enough to rest in His provision and plan, even though she didn’t understand the implications of all of it.

This is different from stoicism, a philosophy we encountered in the book of Acts. Stoics believe the world is out of their control, and everything is going to happen as it was, so the greatest value is to simply surrender to fate. While on the one hand that sounds similar to what I’m advocating, it’s different.

Our world is not controlled by an impersonal force like fate. Neither is our world merely random. We recognize that there is a loving and all-wise God who is ultimately in control of all things. He is the One who is directing the events of history (and our lives) to His ultimate goal. The Bible promises us that in everything that happens, God is working to accomplish His good purposes in His people (Romans 8:28).

So the way to find this trust (and the peace that accompanies it) is to learn to rest in the fact that God is ultimately working for good. He knows what He is doing in all things, and He is orchestrating all things to lead to His good purpose.

I love the lyrics of a current Christian song, “And the story isn’t over if the story isn’t good.” When things feel like they are all messed up, when they feel out of control, when they feel like they are anything but good, choose to remember the One who is in control of all things. He has promised that all things work together for good.

I’ve worked to teach my daughters the power of the word “yet”. I remember Grace coming home from practice one time and being frustrated that she couldn’t do some of the things that the others on her team could do. I just kept saying, you can’t do them yet. When they get frustrated that they don’t understand something in school, I remind them they don’t understand it yet. And when things are hard, and they don’t see how things can possibly be good, I remind them that things aren’t good yet.

There’s power in that simple three-letter word. But the real power lies in the faith that undergirds it. We can have faith that God is working even in the things we cannot understand. He is working all things for good. When we learn to rest in this truth, we can deal with the fact that we don’t understand, because we know that we just can’t see what God is doing yet.

Lesson #3: Need for Jesus

The third lesson Christmas teaches us is how Jesus is an essential part of the human existence. Many people do not understand this. They view Jesus as a great example or role model, or imagine that He came to give us some helpful axioms about how to live our lives. But Christmas reminds us that isn’t the case. Jesus came to the earth because we desperately needed Him to!

One of my favorite things to reflect upon at Christmas is what it meant for Jesus to come to earth. I love to meditate on Philippians 2:5-11,

5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11, NLT)

This passage gives us a glimpse of what it meant for Jesus to come into the world. Sometimes we miss that because we think of living as a human being as a great privilege, not an incredible step down. And for us, our lives are a great privilege. But Jesus constraining Himself to the limits of humanity was a tremendous sacrifice! He was giving up Heaven to live on earth. He was giving up His all-powerful nature to live as a human being. He was giving up perfection to live in a world marred by sin. And He was giving up His position as the King to become a servant.

When we understand all of this, it should lead us to ask the question: why? Why would Jesus do all of this? Why was Christmas necessary?

And this is one of the big lessons we should learn. Christmas was necessary because we all need a Savior. Most people recognize that the world today is messed up. The big question, however, is why is it messed up and what is the solution to the problem?

People try to come up with all sorts of answers to this. They conclude that the solution is more education, or redistribution of wealth, or more government control, or less government control, or any number of other things. But none of these things will solve the problem, because none of them address the root issue.

But Christmas does. The root issue with our world (and with us) is sin. We have rebelled against God and made a royal mess of the world He created. Many people imagine that we can fix this if we just start doing better. But deep down, we know this isn’t true. We know we can’t erase past failures by doing better in the future. We need something much bigger than just trying harder and hoping we can do better. We need a Savior.

And the fact that Jesus came into our world proves that this is needed. If there was an easier way to fix the problem, God surely would have elected to use it. But instead, Jesus came into the world as a frail baby. The One who spoke the world into existence with a word had to communicate only through cries. The One who is eternal subjected Himself to death. The One who was sinless became sin. Why? Because this was the way to fix the problem.

Christmas reminds us of our need for Jesus. It reminds us that our only hope is to trust in what He has accomplished, rather than trying to earn salvation and forgiveness for ourselves. And it reminds us that this is what our whole world needs as well.

As such, we should make sure we know where we stand with Jesus, and we should also work to ensure that others know the solution as well. Rather than wasting our breath trying to win people to our positions on any number of things our world tells us is important and is the solution to our problems, we would be far better served to focus our efforts on pointing people to Jesus. He is the One who came to earth to provide a solution. The question is simply whether we will embrace that solution or continue spinning our wheels in other pursuits. Christmas reminds us that everyone needs Jesus.

Lesson #4: Love

The final lesson Christmas teaches us is love. Once again, I see love in the manger. When I think about why Jesus subjected Himself to all that He did I recognize that He came because it was the only way to accomplish the forgiveness of His people. But that still left another option available to Him. He could have simply abandoned us to ourselves—left us to toil in the quagmire we had created. But He didn’t. Why? The answer is love.

Christmas is the ultimate picture of God’s love for humanity. Think about the ways we see Jesus’ love on display for us.

1. He gave up His position of comfort and peace because He knew it would accomplish peace for us.

2. He bore the penalty of our sin, even though He didn’t deserve it, because He wanted to set us free.

3. He chose to extend forgiveness to those who continually rebelled against Him, even though we didn’t deserve it.

4. He chose to extend forgiveness, knowing that we would still find many ways to rebel in the future.

I hope you can see the implications for us. If Jesus has loved us this way, then we ought to love others similarly. If Jesus treated us with love and grace, we ought to be willing to do the same for others.

Much of Jesus’ teachings that we find in the gospels start here. We can fixate on the details of how these things are supposed to play out (like Peter asking how many times he was supposed to forgive someone), but trying to create a checklist to follow really misses the point. Each of Jesus’ commands has a deeper underlying command—love one another as He has loved us.

This kind of love desires the best for another person. It does not seek to exact revenge or be punitive. It seeks to be kind and understanding, rather than trying to act selfishly. It does not merely indulge others in their sin, but lovingly and gently seeks to lead them in a different direction. This is the love Jesus has shown to us, and it’s the same kind of love we should carry into our world. Christmas is a vivid depiction of God’s love for us, and provides a focal point that can help us learn to love others in the same way.

Conclusion

While the Christmas season is over, the lessons we learn shouldn’t also be relegated to a box in the corner of the basement or attic. Sometimes it feels like that’s what we do with the Christmas story. We trot it out every year and spend time looking at our nativity scenes and thinking about the beauty of that peaceful silent night. But then we put it out of our minds once the calendar changes and we go back to business as usual. So as we conclude today, let’s come up with some practical things we can do to keep these lessons fresh in our minds, even after Christmas has been put back in storage.

First, keep a symbol of Christmas somewhere you’ll continue to see it. Obviously, most people don’t want to leave their houses decorated for Christmas all year long. And that’s perfectly reasonable. But maybe you can keep some token out and put it somewhere you’ll see it often. Maybe you can leave the baby Jesus on your desk, or hang an ornament somewhere you’ll still regularly see it. Or maybe you can do something as simple has hanging a piece of tinsel or garland somewhere seemingly innocuous, but somewhere that will remind you to keep the lessons of Christmas fresh in your mind. Doing this may help you view Christmas as more than just a holiday season and more as the life-changing event it really is.

Second, choose to be intentional about ordering your life. The beginning of a new year is a good time for us to re-evaluate the things that are most important to us. It is a chance to remember what really matters and to begin making changes. Let me challenge you to take a different approach to allocating your time, energy, and resources. Ask yourself a simple question: will this matter eternally? Paul tells us not to fix our eyes on the things that we can see, but on the things that are unseen. How can we possibly do that? By choosing to look at the world through a different lens. Ask yourself what really matters? What is really worth my time and energy? What will yield eternal dividends, and what is only fleeting and temporary? And then (here’s the hard part) choose to order your life this way.

In the coming year, I’d encourage you to think about things like personal Bible study and prayer, the way you spend your money, the things you dedicate your time to, the attitudes and behaviors you are modeling for your children, and how you can actively teach your children to think this way. Be intentional about living for the things that last. It will probably mean your priorities look different than the rest of the world, but let’s be honest, that’s probably actually a good thing!

Finally, work at loving like Jesus. This will be a continual process for each of us. But keep asking yourself, “What would love look like here?” Once again, it’s going to make us live a bit different than the world around us, but clearly what the world is doing isn’t working. When we begin to love like Jesus, we are forced to trust Him, and we will end up finding peace in ways we never dreamed possible. Loving like Jesus means trusting that His way is better, even though it’s very different than the way we tend to think. As you encounter people and situations be very intentional about asking, how do I love this person the way Jesus loved me? That’s one of the best ways to ensure the lessons of Christmas linger long past December.

I pray you’ve had a wonderful Christmas season, but I also pray that the impact of Christmas on your life doesn’t stop when the decorations get put away. May the lessons of Christmas continue to linger and impact you all year round.

© December 28th, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Advent