Christ in Xmas
The countdown continues to Christmas for most of us so now the task of keeping our time “Christ-centered” is truly at hand.
I did think it was interesting to note that keeping Christ in Christmas has not always been the dilemma we face today. As a matter of fact did you know that the Christmas celebration (primarily from England and Germany) was such a wild, ungodly, and even dangerous affair that churches in Europe had BANNED celebrating Christmas. It’s true…check it out. And in America it was much the same. It was just over 100 years ago that congress stopped meeting on Christmas day and businesses closed.
Christ was a big deal - but not Christmas. You might also be aware that even some people’s favorite story this time of year - “Twas the Night Before Christmas”, was written by a minister…but he kept it secret for years and years and years….due to the controversy of celebrating Christmas. And even old Rudolph wasn’t added into the mix of the rain deer until nearly 100 years after the story was written.
Later, (late 1800’s) the Catholic Church began to re-institute a “Christ-mass” to counter the wild celebration that was taking place. Soon even the Protestant Churches joined in as powerful clergymen and political figures from very conservative Victorian roots pushed strong the ideal that a holiday with Christ’s name in it should at least honor him.
In the early 1900’s the advent of department stores - like FAO Schwarz saw the advantage of making this celebration about Children. And so here we are the day before the big event and we see it has morphed into a conglomeration of all of these things. Yes’ for many of us…this holiday is for the most part about our Savior and church and spiritual matters. For others still hung over from this weekend’s holiday party - I guess not all that much has changed from the raucous days of long ago. And yes…let’s face it - children are still a major focus for the day…gifts and all.
My conviction about all the whole thing is this. We need to celebrate God’s plan to send His Son to the earth at some point, and it’s true the feast of tabernacles would make more sense - but isn’t it really what’s in our hearts that counts anyway? So let’s not get crazy that we probably have the timing wrong and just keep our hearts right. And let’s not get crazy that the world has somehow “stolen” our holiday…because it was not ours in the first place - that only started just a little over 100 years ago.
My advice on this fine Christmas Eve morning…RELAX. Put on some good worship music like Donna has on our stereo right now, give God the gift of yourself by getting to church (notice how I slipped that in there?) - but it is true. I mean what else can we really give God - but us. And enjoy the gifts; the fam; the kids; the decorations and of course the food…but hey, just don’t worship the stuff.
