This will be a short post, as everyone is busy this time of year as the holidays are at hand. That busyness and the nature of the holiday are the exact things I want to talk about today. Long and short, today, with the spirit of Christmas in the air, let us look at how we celebrate Christmas.
We all get excited about the gifts, the family, the friends, the parties, the parades, etc, and those are things that we should be excited about. Over time though it seems that what we forget about is the real truth of Christmas. Don’t stop reading now, I am not going on some anti Christmas rant, I just want to look a few SMALL things that we could do to help correct this situation. The simply truth is that over 2,000 years ago, Christ, the only son of God, was born to two teenagers in a stable and that began the process that lead to our sins being paid for FOREVER. That is something worth celebrating for sure.
Again, understand I am not saying that we should not celebrate His birth with gifts, family, parties, etc, but I think that over time the traditions have become more important to many of us then the actually event that we are celebrating. . Tradition is so entrenched that we even have it within our church celebrations. Think about it, Matthew 2 ( where the visit of the Magi is discussed) does not tell us how many Magi (wise men) there were, but tradition has pointed to three due to the number of gifts. The wise men came to the baby Jesus at this parents home, sometime between his 41st day (post his visit to the temple) and His second birthday, not at the stable, yet they are in every nativity scene you see. I am not saying that we should throw out our naivety scenes, or change the Christmas play, I am simply saying that we really need to look at how we are celebrating the birth of Christ. I think many time the tradition and lore of Christmas have become so entrenched and set that we view them to be fact, even if they are not backed up with hard data.
I am not even going to touch on the entire issue over the time of year, and the way the holiday developed. On that point. I will simply say that I have no problem with the fact that we celebrate Christ’s birth later in the year then when He was born, and I am not bothered by how the holiday developed. Is it historically accurate - No, is it based on tradition - yes, so why no comment. The answer is simple, my point in this post is not to change Christmas and how we celebrate it in general, but to point out that so many times the traditions and those ancillary things around the holiday have become more important to many then the actual event that is being celebrated, and that is what I want everyone to think about.
Again, I am not trying to say that we need ditch the celebration, I am just saying that we should all be careful not to let tradition become so much of a part of our celebration that it covers over the actual event of Christ’s birth. If the Christmas stories warm your heart more then the warmth of Christ’s love, there is a problem. If the family / company party means more then the birth of Christ then something is out of sync. If the presents from people mean more then the present of Christ, something is wrong. If the parade is a bigger deal the virgin birth, there is a problem. If the trip home is a bigger issue then the beginning of Christ’s life on earth, then there is a problem. The list could continue, but you get the point. Simply, this year celebrate Christmas, have a great time, but remember that the center of the holiday is not the presents, the parities, the church service, the family, the travel, this tradition, this service, etc, but it is about the birth of Christ.
There is no Christmas without Christ. There can be holidays, there can be parades, there can be presents, etc, but all of that just adds up to human celebrations and traditions. It only becomes Christmas when you add Christ to it. If you don’t celebrate Christmas that is fine, that is your right, but don’t call it Christmas either, call it the Winter holiday. If you celebrate Christmas then rejoice in Christ, rejoice in his Birth, rejoice in His life, rejoice in the miracle that brought Christ to earth, rejoice in the love of God, rejoice in the warmth of salvation, and let all that rejoicing pour out of you into your world via the celebrations, events, and traditions you participate in. Simply keep your traditions in the right place, below and inferior too, the real reason for the season.
Have a great day and rejoice in the birth of our Lord and Savior this weekend. He is alive, He is risen, and without His birth we are still dead to sin. Celebrate His love, share His love with the world, and let the traditions of the world fall in line as they will.
