Why Does Christmas Feel Magical?

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. The colorful lights, the uplifting music, the excuse to give loved ones presents and handwritten cards. There’s just something that feels magical about the holiday.

As Christians, it may feel sacrilegious to call anything in the natural world “magical” because of the connotations surrounding the term “magic”. If you do a quick Google search, magic is defined as “the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.”

Without getting into the darker definitions of magic, by this definition alone, I do believe Christmas has magical elements to it. Though they are far deeper, and more incredible, than the secular ideas of the magic of the season.

While I don’t believe there are flying reindeer or jolly elves delivering presents, there is definitely a supernaturalness to the true meaning of Christmas. Only as Christians, we can replace the word “magic” with the word “miracle”.

The difference between magic and miracles is that miracles require intention and care, whereas there’s a sense of spontaneity and luck associated with magic. More importantly, God is the one who orchestrates miracles and the only one with the power to make them happen. Only He is worthy of our praise.

God had been planning to send His son to save us since the beginning of the world, even foreshadowing this promise throughout history. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He fulfilled each of the descriptions of the promised Savior from the Old Testament. This certainly required much forethought!

However, I don’t think it’s wrong to appreciate the magical feeling of Christmas. In fact, I’m not sure if we can really understand the true meaning of Christmas until we believe in the supernaturalness of it.

Let’s read through Matthew’s depiction of the Christmas story together:

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰ But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

~ Matthew 1:18-25

Now go back and take note of all the unnatural happenings within this story. Here are a few I noticed:

• a virgin being with child
• an angel of the Lord visiting Joseph through a dream
• God taking human form
• God wanting to be with us
• two regular humans changing the entire trajectory of their lives in obedience to God the moment they received their callings

Christmas feels magical because it requires a belief in the supernatural, especially for Christians!

If you think believing an elderly man and his elves spend the year creating presents in the North Pole in order to deliver them all in one night is unrealistic, consider what we believe! The almighty God came down from Heaven in human flesh through an unnatural birth because He desired to be with us, His lowly creation.

Not only that, but from the moment God created this plan, He knew that He was sending His Son with a death wish. Jesus’ ultimate purpose was to die for our sins (and thankfully come back to life!) in order to break the barrier between God and man forever.

There is no greater Christmas miracle than Jesus.

What a gift it is to serve a God who loves us so wonderfully! His love is truly beyond human comprehension.

And that is what we must celebrate this season–and all year round. When we accept Jesus’ love for us, we will notice more clearly when we are being called to share that love with others. Christmas is an excellent excuse to be generous and caring to those in our lives, and share with them the good news of Jesus’ great love.

This Advent season, I encourage you to take a moment to rest and reflect on the miracle of Jesus’ birth. Allow yourself to pause long enough to be filled with awe for all God’s done to be with us–to be with you. ❤

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

– 1 John 4:9