Christmas season

How should we approach the holiday of Christmas as Christians? Is it even biblical to recognize it and celebrate Jesus’ birthday? These two questions among others are on my mind each year as Christmas approaches. Since we missed Christmas in the US a couple of years ago, different things about Christmas really stick out to me since we’ve been back.

The biggest thing is how the biblical story blends with worldly stories and traditions. As we listen to Christmas CD’s and radio stations with songs about Santa Claus and Jesus one after the other and see houses with both the Nativity and Rudolph in it, it becomes harder to decipher between fairy tale and truth. Our lives as Christians become blatantly entangled with the world during this time of year. We are doing children and our culture a disservice when we mix these things as Christians. Too often our cultural traditions about Christmas gets jumbled with our Christianity. The idea that we have to 'just believe' gets thrown around a lot when it comes to Santa Claus or the 'spirit of Christmas' in general, but its all empty. The only person or spirit we are called to believe in is the Lord Jesus! James 4:4 says, “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” This might seem harsh and going overboard as I talk about Christmas, but we need to take the Word of God seriously as well.

Some of us in the church make a big deal when our culture uses the term Happy Holidays, but if someone is not a Christian, then why should they say and celebrate CHRISTmas? Let Christians celebrate Christmas and let the world celebrate their ‘Holidays’. And if we’re going to celebrate Christmas let’s go all out with the coming of our Lord instead of mixing it with the world. If we’re going to get together to celebrate Jesus, let’s really celebrate and keep out the things of the world. We might ‘celebrate’ at our church services, but why don't we do it outside of church buildings? One reason is we don't know how to celebrate Jesus and we are afraid of offending others. This could be due to families being split about beliefs, but let us not be ashamed of Jesus and share the good news with our families and friends this Christmas. May the name of Jesus be glorified at each of our gatherings this year.