16 Days to Christmas, Tuesday, Dec 9, 2025

“Longing for a Corona Christmas”

Have you ever wondered why the media focuses so intensely on Holiday Travel? I mean, really… Does it matter that tons of people will be traveling during the Season? For those who are traveling, the constant coverage just makes us nervous—visions of overcrowded planes, long delays, and airport nightmares. And if we’re driving or taking a bus, we can begin to dread the road trip before we even back out of the driveway.

Most people, of course, aren’t going anywhere. Even though it feels like the whole world is either in the air or on the highways, the truth is that two-thirds of Americans will stay home this year. Pastors rarely travel at Christmas (for obvious reasons). As someone who NEVER travels during the Holidays, I have to admit—I sometimes get a little envious. Yes, I live on a tropical island off the coast of Florida, but now and then I long for snow. You know… the whole Thomas Kinkade scene: a snowy cabin tucked in the woods, a frozen lake, maybe even Santa’s sleigh drifting across the sky.

I miss that sort of thing, even though I’ve never actually experienced it. I stare at an artist’s depiction, likely a product of their own imagination, and I become sad that I can’t recreate it for myself or the people I love. Silly, isn’t it? Longing for something someone else hasn’t even seen. And honestly, not even the annual Corona Christmas commercial can shake the desire to be somewhere else.

Does that make sense?  Most of us probably wish to be somewhere else during the Holidays, and often for good and legitimate reasons. But remember this: wherever we are is exactly where God needs us this season. God will bless our moments if we give the LORD the space to do so, especially when we love God by loving each other.

The great American Holiday artists—Kinkade, Rockwell, Sundblom, and Max—can’t create Christmas for me. And a beer commercial certainly shouldn’t have any sway over me, even though that’s my reality.  So, if God grants me another “Corona Christmas” this year—sunshine, palm trees, warm evenings—I should be, and will be, very, very thankful.

“Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.”  (Philippians 4:11, NLT)