’Tis the season…
Christmas decorations are in place, lights are shining, music is playing, cards are being sent and received, Santa Claus is seemingly the favorite person of all, but quite fortunately nativity scenes are displayed at many churches, and pleasantly a few additional locales as well.
Truly is a gala time of year. Yet, most obvious and actually saddest of it all is that vast majority of people are only thinking about and doing shopping.
Selecting and buying something special for another and wrapping it up pretty is admirable. But, it’s overboard. Christmas is so “commercial,” surveys reveal many cannot explain the true meaning.
Well, what is Christmas, really? Central truth of this season must be: “The Child of Christmas is God.”
Then, how come Santa Claus gets more publicity? Pre-modern representations of the gift-giver from church history and folklore, notably St. Nicholas (known in Dutch as Sinterklaas), merged with the English character Father Christmas to create the character known to Americans and the rest of the English-speaking world as Santa Claus.
Gift-giving got out of proportion as the reason for the season. Yet, St. Nicolas is still recognized as the patron saint of children and honored with a Feast Day on December 6.
What about the nativity scene? It represents the Holy Family of Jesus, the Divine Son of God, his mother Mary and his foster-father Joseph. The babe in Bethlehem. He made everything.
A Feast of Holy Family is celebrated December 29, to recognize the Holy Family as the model for all Christian families.
Reminds us of Colossians 1:15: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.”
Science cannot explain it. God created it all.
Thus, First John 4:2: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”
True reason ’tis the season…
+++ALLELUIA+++
