We have certain Advent traditions in our family that I look forward to every year. My favourite are the Advent candles that we light each week. When my boys were small, my mother gave us an Advent calendar made of felt on which the days leading up to Christmas could be marked by completing the nativity scene, one character at a time. Every year my boys finagled their order of taking turns, because each one wanted to place the Baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning. My boys are older now and I actually wasn’t going to put it up this year (might have something to do with the cows in the sky jumping over the moon in recent years?), but my youngest specifically asked that we do it again this year. We’ll see where the cows end up.
It seems that many want to take Christ out of Christmas, and make it simply a winter holiday. The Christmas tree becomes a holiday tree, and “Merry Christmas” is replaced by “Happy Holidays” as the politically correct greeting. But Christmas, in its historicity is the celebration of Christ’s birth! If you remove Christ, there is no Christmas. There is no reason for gift-giving, just as the magi brought their gifts to Baby Jesus. There is no reason for carol-singing, just as the angels sang so long ago. Christ came to earth as a baby for all people, even for those who try to deny His existence.
It seems cliché to say, but Christ is the reason for the season.
Isaiah 9:6 (New Living Translation)
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,[a] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment