My algorithm keeps spitting out the same content, as algorithms tend to. Reel after reel, photo after photo, people doing more and more and more for Christmas. 

I can get so easily swept up in it. Do I, too, need ten more strands of lights for my tiny 600 square foot condo? Do I need to drape long stretches of garland over every single doorway, and make sure my husband and I have matching jammies on Christmas morning? (Okay, I admittedly do like that idea…) 

The more I watch, the more I’m sucked in. Every day, my algorithm produces more of the same, and like a vortex, I’m sucked in even more.

For some reason, I keep saying yes to doom scrolling. It doesn’t produce anything good or lovely or fruitful in me. If anything, I become discontent, selfish, and consumeristic. It is so easy to swipe up on (another) Instagram advertisement, convinced that if I just buy this next item, then joy and magic and wonder will ensue. Even if joy does follow my spontaneous purchase, it evaporates quickly. 

When I really think about it, this isn’t what I want Christmas to feel like. This isn’t what I want to keep saying yes to.

I think about Mary. I think about her every year around this time, but even more so this year. I just got married, and as my husband and I blend our lives and traditions and families on our first Christmas, I’ve been pondering again how Mary must have felt. She was so young. Everything in her life changed in an instant.

When the angel came to her in Luke 1, I’m always most struck by Mary’s response to this terrifying and awesome news.

Mary answers, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”

Or in other words: Mary says yes.

She says yes to what felt impossible: to become pregnant despite being a virgin. 

She says yes to pain: the pain of childbirth, the pain of pregnancy before marriage, the pain of what people would think of her.

She says yes to God. 

What are you saying yes to this Christmas?

I know for a lot of us, there are circumstances in our lives that we wouldn’t say yes to, given the choice. There are unimaginable things you are currently facing. 

But I can’t help but wonder, even in the midst of the pain and the circumstances you want to reject, if God has an invitation for you in the middle of it.

What could God be inviting you into this season? What could you say yes to? 

Another translation of Mary’s response to the angel says this: “Behold, the Lord’s bond-servant; may it be done to me according to your word.”

She takes God at His Word. She trusts His character, His kindness, His faithfulness, His provision, His protection, His unfailing love, and His steadfastness. 

She trusts Him with her life. 

She trusts Him enough to say yes… to anything He asks. 

Do we? 

There are so many things I want to say no to this Christmas: consumerism, selfishness, discontentment.

But the only One I want to say yes to? God. 

I want to trust Him enough to say yes to Him every single time. Because He is faithful. He is kind. He is Emmanuel. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is bigger than any circumstance we are facing. 

He is the one to say yes to this Christmas. And to keep saying yes to every day after.

May whatever God has planned for you and me be done to us according to His word.

Leave a Comment