Don't Wish, Rejoice!

A friend sent me a picture of his Christmas Starbucks cup. This is what it said:

WE invite YOU to LISTEN to your DESIRES and to RENEW your HOPE. To SEE the world not as it is, but as it COULD be. Go ahead, WISH. It's what makes the holidays the holidays.

Luckily for us, this is the exact opposite of the message of Christmas. Are we left to hope and wish for something, for a redemption that may never come to pass? Are we left to ourselves to drum up hope from within, inspired from within? Thank God the answer is no.

Instead, I invite you this Christmas to see the world exactly as it is—a world drowning in sin that can't save itself no matter how hard it tries. Then I invite you not to wish harder than ever for something that doesn't yet exist—an empty promise that may disappoint forever, but to celebrate the coming of Christ into the world—something that is done, completed. Something that changed everything. The rock-solid historical event that was accomplished for us by God Himself. In this, we can rest and rejoice forever. This is what makes the holidays the holidays.

Merry Christmas, and glory to God in the highest!

Comments

[Teri]

Ugh...Got that same cup the other day while out with my children. What a great opportunity to talk about the real hope. (Not our desires...but the dream of eternity.)

[kpolo]

Listen to my desires ... to see that the world not as it is but as could be?

What a leap of faith to assume that my desires are unselfish and good. So if I were dreaming of world dominance, to have every person in every country be subject to me, to not have the world with America fighting for freedom, but had some jihadist's view of what the world should be ... surely Starbucks and its demented marketing dept would bow to that, correct?

Starbucks ... you'll never get a buck from me!

[ryan]

Amy

I liked your post..except the word luckily.

How can we luckily rejoice in anything?

Maybe a better word or phrase would be happily, or thankfully, or Praise the Lord, but luckily?

[James Findlayson]

Thank you, Amy.
Lovely post.

[Jeff]

To Ryan:
I don't think she meant that it is lucky for us that we are rejoicing but that as followers of Christ we are lucky to have something to rejoice about.

To Kpolo:
That's a great point! Ive been reading allot about the moral argument which tries to prove the existence of God by pointing to a moral standard we all try to work towards. I find it interesting that Starbucks would assume that humanity would desire and wish for a better world as a whole without taking into consideration any other possible desires. Even a corrupt corporation seems to have an innate sense of that ultimate goal. Interesting haha

[KWM]

We always hear things like: Christmas is about giving, or Christmas is about spending time with family, or Christmas is about helping others, or Christmas is about “fill in the blank”. Where do these ideas come from?

This isn’t Christmas.

Starbucks should stick to a picture of Santa Claus on their cups – because most likely they would find the true meaning of Christmas offensive to those wanting to renew their hope, desires, and wishes. Besides, I thought people did those things every day.

[Sage S.]

On every level here, I think Starbucks is representing accurately what the 'fourth quarter' means to them - marketing their brand to cash in on the vague cultural sentiment of the holiday season without ostracizing any potential market demographic. This is pretty standard for every business throughout the Christmas season. The deeper 'corporate evil' is the whole cultural Christmas in general, the greeting card / holiday movie / sentimental facsimile that goes on alongside the real holiday. The Starbucks cup ad plays into these notions. Marketing is about fueling imagery - connecting primal wish fulfillment with a product. This is why Disneyland is always hopping with tourists. America itself has always represented an ideal of freedom and opportunity, and so people everywhere identify America with the values it symbolizes.

Anyways, all this roiling economic machinery throughout December reminds me of buying and selling in the Temple. This is a time set aside to honor the Messiah, and yet it is the centerpiece of our whole annual market economy! Indirectly, this too gives glory to God by attesting to the integrity of His name to generate and sustain man's hopes...even filtered through the miasma of industries built up around Christmas, the glimmer of hope in the Savior's coming is as a source of life, prosperity, and industry to the world. Jesus' coming to earth had so much significance that thousands of years later the mere trace of it drives the world's economic production for several months out of every year.

[K S]

"To SEE the world not as it is, but as it COULD be."

This is often repeated verbatim by both Barack and Michelle Obama. Maybe it's from Saul Alinsky; I'm not sure.