Its finally the Christmas season, always marked by the arrival of Santa at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Its a season of giving and spending time with family and wearing ugly sweaters with friends. So why do I see articles and speak to people that are miserable this time of year? Maybe its the pressure to give the perfect gift. Maybe its the pressure to make it to all the events. Maybe its the pressure to get those kids that toy. Maybe its the pressure to find the finances to pay for these things. Maybe its the pressure to keep up with the Grizwald's next door in the decorations department. We all have that friend who's house looks straight out of Southern Living. Christmas has become about the season itself. People will remind us the "Reason for the Season" but do we really understand that phrase?
How old were you when you found out there was no Santa Clause? How old were you when you found out Dec. 25th is not the day of our Lords birth? Can you recall what you got last year for Christmas? How about 2 years ago? How about 10 years ago? I myself can only remember a couple of gifts over the years and only still have a few of them. One is a 1986 Transformer Rodimus Prime, a Swatch watch and some cycling clothes. All those years and all those gifts and only a few remain. Its sad that people hustled to get those things, spent their hard earned money and now there is nothing to show for it. We get caught up in in the shopping and gift giving, mostly because we have been trained to shop at this time of year. Black Friday, cyber Monday, Christmas in July sales and the new Gray Friday. The retailers and media have conditioned us to spend at this time of year. As we get caught up in the frenzy, at some point somebody will say "Remember the Reason for the Season". That usually makes stop and reflect on the Birth of Christ and then we are off again.
Do we truly understand how magnificent this birth is? How far in advance it was planned and foretold? Do we understand what it really means? In Genesis 3:15 tells us that God will send Christ for us. In the beginning here is God telling us that he has a plan for our salvation. His coming is foretold all throughout the Old Testament. Then we see his birth in the Gospel but do we stop to think about it? There was God in human form born that night, so we could understand God better. The scripture tells us that a "multitude of heavenly host praising God". Are we praising God for that during this season? Are we praising Him for sending His Son, who would ultimately die for our sins, like those angels in the fields? People are lost tis time of year. Depressed and lonely. Hurt and frustrated. Happy and oblivious to what Christmas really is. Looking at nativity scenes but missing God in there, as THE savior to the whole world.
The truth is that it is so easy to overlook the baby in the manger this time of year. Churches have low attendance during the Holiday season. One of the reason we overlook Him, is America has censored Him. I was in Office Max making a purchase and the teller said "Thank You, Happy Holidays!" It caught me and I said "Merry Christmas and thank God for our Savior's birth!" She looked at me and said "Amen." I smiled and left but in my mind I knew that the "Happy Holidays " was a way to not offend anybody in our PC world. (Isn't PC wrong in its self? You are censoring real people and trying to conform them! I digress.) There in a nutshell is the problem, Christ less Christmas. Is a epidemic in our country today. Have you seen this sign? Happy X-Mas? Yeah I thought so. See? Christ less.
So this Christmas season take time to tell loved ones and family members about the TRUE reason for Christmas. That THE savior was born to free all mankind from death.
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