Remember Why We Celebrate Our Holidays
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘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); ‘For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’ (Isaiah 9:6)
As we enter the holiday season, starting with Veterans’ Day and then entering Thanksgiving before the month of December brings us Christmas and finally New Year’s to ring in 2025, many call it ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ can for the most part, it is. Many people, though, find the non-stop commercials of ‘holiday cheer’, the incessant continuous blaring of ‘Granma Got Run Over by A Reindeer’ in stores, and in some instances the super-sugary sappiness of greedy happiness taught to our children in the actions of mind-numbed adults.
There are also those who have experienced tragedies and tribulations that are reminded through such sensory overload, can bring despair and depression upon them. While I don’t get depressed, I am not a fan of ‘secular Christmas’, though it is tempered by the true meaning of Christmas, the gift our Father gave us in the ultimate act of love, our Savior Jesus, over 2,028 years ago to provide us the path to eternal life through Him.
Veterans’ Day is usually a good day to remember all those who served in the Armed Services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Marines, and Coast Guard) and recognize their sacrifice of time to provide a defense of our American liberties and way of life. Thanksgiving is a week (or long weekend if one truncates it) to give the Lord thanks for His blessings, for His provisions and for our friends and family He has given us. It has, like Christmas, turned somewhat into a secular event, with parades, a full slate of pro and college football to watch, and is the prelude to the secular onslaught of Christmas through the unofficial holidays of Black Friday and Cyber Monday (though Black Friday is becoming ‘Black November’, and Cyber Monday is almost becoming year-round). This is where things can turn a bit melancholy for some of us.
To those who know me, though I may look like the ‘jolly old elf’ due to my flowing beard, when it comes to the Christmas season, I am a curmudgeon of sorts. I’m not nasty or mean to others but I bristle at the ‘HO-HO-HO’s’ and sometimes, in showing my disdain, I may respond with, ‘OH-OH-OH, NO-NO-NO!’
I’m not a fan of walking into the stores that should be focusing on home improvement or kitchen wares and find them filled with secular Christmas stuff, almost as much as I find it distasteful to see them filled at other times of the year with secular Easter or Halloween props. This, of course, may be why I’m not visited by Santa or the ‘bunny’, something I’m thankful for as it avoids any ugly home-defense legal issues that could occur should either violate the sanctity of my home (though rabbit stew is some good food).
Every year at this time, I’m reminded of Linus Van Pelt laying out clearly to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. In Isaiah 9:6, the meaning of Christmas is laid out for us. Our Jesus was born, a humble and servant King who will rule forevermore. He first had to live among us, walk with us, and then die for us as the Ultimate Sacrifice, so that we could claim His Salvation. Through the Holy Spirit, He leads us in our daily lives; correcting us when we need it, helping us when we need it, comforting us when we need it. We are not perfect but through Christ we gain perfection.
The only gift of any significance exchanged on any Christmas Day was that first one. When Jesus was born, the gift God gave us was of Himself, His Only Son. The only question is, would we accept Him? Who could turn down such a gift? We find that many do not accept Him, many turn Him down. Yet out of all the gifts we could be presented with, Jesus is the only one that won’t break. He comes with an Eternal Warranty! Jesus is always working for us, never ceasing. He is the BEST. GIFT. EVER.
Does God mind us if we celebrate Christmas by giving gifts to each other, or having a tree up? The answer is of course not, if we ensure to remember what Christmas is really about. The best example of this is ‘A Charlie Brown’s Christmas’. Like Charlie Brown, who hates the commercialization of Christmas, every year at this time I’m a ‘scrooge’ or ‘grinch’ – ‘Bah, humbug!’
This is due to the utter grotesqueness of the mind-numbing Christmas objects found in every store and Christmas ads and secular Christmas decorations – Christmas this, Christmas that, Christmas-Christmas-Christmas – BLEH! It’s like eating diet food; the first time it’s great but after a while you stop as it’s the same thing over and over. The next iterations become shorter and less tolerable until it’s a big turn-off and you can’t even look at it, let alone eat it (which is unfortunate as it’s the only way I can effectively lose weight, it seems).
So, each year, I turn off or ignore (in my head) the ‘feeling of commercial Christmas’ and remind myself continually of the fact in ‘the Truth of Christmas’, as Linus did for Charlie Brown. It is overwhelming to think that God allowed Himself, as Jesus, to go through the Immaculate Conception and birth, to grow up and walk among those who He created, to be both loved and criticized, then later condemned, for being ‘offensive’ by the very people He created, and killed cruelly by crucifixion. Yet Jesus rose on the 3rd day, conquering both Hell and Death, to become the Ultimate Sacrifice for our sin debt, to show us He is worthy of our worship and obedience. When I focus on the fact and not the feeling, I then enter into the Christmas season with ‘good tidings’ and ‘great joy’ as God intended the season to be.
Don’t be like Snoopy, who was into the Christmas contest of being #1 in house decorations. Be like Charlie Brown, who seeks the true meaning of Christmas; or be like Linus Van Pelt, one who provides the true meaning of Christmas to his friends. You can turn off the twinkly lights, but you can’t turn off the celebration of the Birth of our Savior. As we head into the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s mega-holiday season, focus on what Christmas is really all about and what it really means. It’s not the twinkling lights, or the fruitcake that has been passed from generation to generation, or that ‘elf-on-a-shelf’ decoration. It is only about one thing, one person – Jesus!
