“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested...” – 1Jn 3:8
It’s Christmas Season
again! Time for carols and cantatas, hymns and hollies, plastic doves and
mistletoes, rice cookies and roast Turkeys… No, right?
We’re all aware of
the perennial debate Christians hold over the blatant commercialisation of the
festival that’s supposed to commemorate the birth of Christ and how it’s been
turned into a merchandising pretext. We can’t also pretend to be ignorant of
the attempt to secularise the Christmas holiday
(literally “Holy Day” in Old English) into an inoffensive, politically correct
end-of-year festival.
Nevertheless, aren’t
some of our counters in reminding people of the “True meaning” of Christmas
just as scripturally incorrect and
spiritually effete? How many times have you heard people say that
Christmas is about “giving”? Or about “selfless love”, or about “family”, or
about “caring for the downtrodden of society”, etc.? The Bible never said any
of those things. That’s like saying your father sent you to school to
demonstrate paternal responsibility, or to show parental love, etc. If you
asked him, he’d more than likely tell you he sent you to school to get you
EDUCATED, period! Whatever mushy reasons you take away from his actions is left
to you.
Similarly, if we
asked our Father (the One in Heaven this time), to tell us the reason why Jesus
was born two thousand years ago, would He reply that it was to exemplify “human
love and sacrifice”?
NO! He would say to
us what the angel Gabriel said to Mary, the Christ Child was born to save us
from our SINS! (Mat 1:21).
Granted, that
probably wouldn’t earn you cheers at the office End-of-Year Dinner, but it does
help for us to at least be aware of the distinction between a moral derivative lesson from and the “Real meaning of” CHRISTMAS.
AMEN.
More Blessings await
you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN
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