Christmas Thoughts

I was driving home late one night last month while a local radio talk show host was lamenting how he wasn’t looking forward to Christmas. He went on to gripe about how Christians just “get up in your face” this time of year.

I was tempted to call and immediately offer an apology. How dare we, as Christians, spoil the spirit of Christmas? After all, people are busy buying presents, running up those credit cards and fighting over mall parking spots and here we are, wanting to talk about the only begotten Savior born to free the world of its sins.

Of course, the effort to take Christ out of Christmas is nothing new. Nothing irks me more than to see a “Merry Xmas” sign. The little Algebra I know taught me that you could insert anything in place of X. But, alas, it wasn’t quite as catchy as Christmas.

So the emphasis has returned to not attacking the message but, rather, attacking the messenger. So the popular wisdom becomes “we’ll keep Christmas but we’ll mock those Christians who are celebrating it for all the wrong reasons.”

The ironic part is we’re the only ones who have it right. There is only one reason to celebrate Christmas. I shudder when I think about how many people don’t know why we celebrate Christmas. I shudder more when I think about how many people, like this ignorant talk show host, are trying to forget why we celebrate Christmas.

And, in a world that continues to take a dimming view of Christianity, I think “up in people’s faces” is exactly where we need to be. We need to be proclaiming the love of Christ and we need to be sharing the wonderful story of salvation.

It’s a great story, it’s a miraculous story and it shouldn’t be some cheerless anecdote to all those other Christmas activities. We can share the love of Christ and we can still buy those presents, hopefully not overcharge those credit cards and eat plenty of holiday cookies. They don’t have to be separate. We can celebrate Christmas without forgetting the meaning of Christmas.

But, if proclaiming the birth of our Savior, ruins somebody’s holiday, then I’ll gladly stand up and be called Scrooge.
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(My dear husband wrote this, but I really wanted to share it!)