The holiday season has a long-standing reputation of changing the way people treat each other. During Christmas season, people seem cheerier and kinder and more generous. In most cases, anyway. At my school, I work with a large urban and low-income population. The holidays seem to bring about the opposite effect in many of my students who feel more anxiety than joy this time of year. All the commercialism of the holiday season doesn't help the less financially fortunate students who hear the same buzz surrounding gifts that the rest of us hear. Beyond the financial aspect, the pressure to enjoy family time can magnify the dysfunction that many of my students go home to every day.
Regardless of our socio-economic status, the media sells us all many ideas about Christmas. In fact, the media has re-created Christmas into a completely non-religious time of feasting and playing which has done a disservice to all of us, not only the less fortunate. They say it's about getting, they say it's about giving, they say it's about reconnecting with family. In all of this noise, the real meaning of the holiday is lost. While at least the latter two on this list are certainly important and certainly help improve what we call the holiday spirit, none of these ideas is what Christmas is really about. Of course, even Christians purport that the season is all about giving and all about being with family, so it's no wonder that we're all confused. Again, these things are wonderful, but the Christian lifestyle should include these things all year. For Christains, Christmas should be a special time because it is about more than the every day.
Putting the Christ back in Christmas requires recognizing and honoring His birth above and beyond what we do every day. Yes, we can honor Him by honoring each other, but if we forget about Him and think only of each other during this season, then we are missing the point entirely. Luke 2:11 sums up what we are celebrating: "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Christmas is the day we honor the birth of our Savior, without home none of us would have reason or hope, and without whom no light would be found in our dark world. Christmas is an honorary day that marks the beginning of a life that would change the destinies of countless generations of people. Christmas demonstrates God's abundant love for us that He would send His light into the world so that we would have a choice between staying in darkness and walking in the light, between being bound by the chains of our sin and soaring in freedom with Him. Christmas is about God's grace and God's generosity. We can celebrate that through our grace and generosity to each other, but we must be careful that reason behind our celebration doesn't get lost in the cultural noise surrounding the holiday.
Posted by Kim at December 19, 2006 08:32 AM