Creation Research
CHRISTMAS
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Keeping the birth of Jesus as the primary reason for celebrating Christmas is important to me.
However, for many years (since my early twenties, to be exact) I have struggled to come to terms with many of our present day Christmas practices and celebrations.
While I don’t like the commercialism or some of the traditions that have become part of our modern day Christmas celebrations, I do rejoice at the significance of the biblical reason for the season. And for that, I am truly thankful!
While I loved Christmas as a child, as a young adult I started to question, and eventually came to intensely dislike the Christmas season. I still struggle somewhat with some of the Christmas celebrations, both within and without the church community.
To back-track a bit, in the mid 1970’s when I was first starting life on my own, I started to become very arrogant and outspoken in expressing my dislike of Christmas.
Since no one really cared what I thought, one day I decided to write a ‘grinchy’ Christmas letter to Lowell Green, a well known and popular radio personality in Ottawa Ontario. I’m not sure why I thought Lowell might be interested, but I sent my letter to him anyway as I knew he would level with me regarding my opinionated dislike of Christmas.
At that time, my Santa years were long past. For me, the reason for the season was about spending money, partying and getting drunk. I didn’t give a hoot about religion or theology and the chubby old elf in red pyjamas and his flying livestock had long since ceased to amuse me.
I was, however, mindful about the Christmas customs and traditions that I had enjoyed as a child. I had long since given up believing in Santa. At the same time, I was searching for meaning in a season that for me, was spiralling out of control.
I was dealing with my first year alone working in the big city and for the first time ever, trying to discover what did or did not have meaning in my life, and in December, especially the meaning of Christmas. I wanted to celebrate Christmas without being critical or judgmental about the traditions and practices of others, yet at that time, Christmas had little meaning for me other than glitz, commercialism and a great deal of unwanted foofaraw.
Mr. Green kindly took the time to reply to me with a one-line note that stated:
The nice thing about Christmas, Valerie, is that it can be anything you want it to be.
It was a nice comment, and I wanted to believe it, but somehow a question nagged at me that needed to be answered.
That question was: Can it?
Alas, even then, as an arrogant non-believer in the meaning of the biblical Christmas story, the answer was no.
Intuitively I knew that we cannot make Christmas anything we want it to be. Christmas is what it is.
A celebration, on the other hand, is a different matter.
And I think that is what Mr. Green meant. How we celebrate (or don’t celebrate) Christmas is a matter of choice.
At the time I wrote Mr. Green in the early 1970’s, I saw no reason what-so-ever to celebrate Christmas. Although I had been raised in a Christian home, as a teenager I had written church off as being definitely not for me.
However, later in life I came to understand the biblical implications of the story of Jesus’ birth. I slowly began to understand that there was more to “The Reason for the Season” than the manger scene. And it had nothing to do with Santa and his reindeer or the remnants of Christmas practices from times long past.
Now, as a believer in the birth, death, resurrection and second coming of Jesus, I celebrate Christmas not only because Jesus was born, but because of the reason why he was born.
As I slowly came to understand the reason Jesus was born, something deep inside me changed. It was not a speedy process. However, I now celebrate the commemoration of the birth of Jesus with joy, reverence and a thankful heart.
I stand before the Lord in awe, humbled by the act of God becoming a man. I stand before Him in wonder, knowing that His birth was the start of His journey to Calvary. And that his journey to Calvary led to his crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and his yet-to-happen, second coming.
What a fantastic, unbelievable story. A story that is only a myth if Jesus did not not rise from the dead.
A story that each one of us has the privilege to examine and believe or disbelieve for ourselves.
The true biblical meaning of Christmas is love.
“For God so loved the world that he gave us His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
“God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17
I still have the letter (and the envelope) from that long ago letter from Lowell Green that was the beginning of my search for the true meaning of Christmas.
I posted these last two links for my own reference. However, if you also want to read more about Christmas celebrations, as usual the ‘Got Questions.org’ website has some excellent information on the topic.