Christmas in New York City

For years Jan and I have longed to visit New York City during the Christmas season. With Jan’s diagnosis came a realization that time passes too quickly not to be intentional in the ways we invest our time. So we decided now was the time to spend a few days in NYC. The week after Thanksgiving with great anticipation, we flew to New York. 

It’s now early Sunday morning, and I am writing this reflection while Jan continues to recover until worship time, then we will come home and resume our recovery this afternoon.  Our hotel was on 54th Street and Broadway, which was an excellent location for us.  We averaged walking 15,000 steps the four days we were on our NYC adventure.  We hung out in Times Square, visited the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, took the subway to Battery Park, spent time at the 911 Memorial, froze on a one-hour boat ride to see the Statue of Liberty, walked in Central Park, saw Carnegie Hall, and a few lesser sights.  Oh yeah, we shopped at Macy’s on 34^th Street and Fifth Avenue.

We also browsed through three Christmas ornament stores in the Times Square area, which is the focus of this blog.  Not an item in any of the three stores reflected the Biblical story of Christ’s birth.  I was surprised.  Then I remembered that at the Rockefeller Center, the only reference was six lit angels composed of wire holding long trumpets posing before the big beautiful tree.  As you expect, the closer we walked toward the tree, the thicker the coagulation of gawkers.  We were there on Wednesday in time to see the formal lighting of the tree, but after seeing the masses, we decided not to stay with the celebrants.

My first reaction upon noticing “Christ” ejected from Christmas was a “shame on them.”  But I continued to think about it.  I came to realize it was not the task of the business world to declare the birth of Jesus.  It is my job and should be my joy.  Why would we expect a commercially driven world to promote our Savior, our Christmas traditions?  I have almost concluded that I should be offended by the opposite when a non-believer in the Christ story delves into creating and selling little idols of a God they do not know. 

The world without Christ is doing what is natural for them, celebrating the magic of the Christmas season while neglecting the majesty of the event of Christmas.  Do not focus on the world acting like the world; that’s who they are.  Don’t reject them or say shameful things about them.  It could be shame on us for letting what is natural for them to disrupt the joy that should be supernatural for us.  They have no real reason to celebrate the birth of Christ.  But you and I do.  Let them see the joy, not of the “season,” but the joy of the living God living in us, Emanuel.

Christmas is for those people who have discovered the “Truth” about life.  Let it shine, brothers and sisters! Let it gloriously shine on all those who live in the darkness.  They are watching us celebrate the coming of the Light.

Photo – 2019 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.