12-21-20<\/p>\n
Christmas should not be confined to one day, or one season, a year. This is not an anti-commercialism rant, or not only that. Of course the \u201cspirit\u201d of Christmas should be with us all year long, but that veers to the sloganeering: Peace On Earth and other sentiments, as important as they are.<\/p>\n
But anything that diverts us, even nobly, from the realization of the Incarnation \u2013 the astonishing, crazy, illogical, radical, loving invasion of our lives by the Creator of the Universe, should make us laugh and weep and sing every of of the year.<\/p>\n
Jesus didn\u2019t come for Christmas.<\/p>\n
Jesus didn\u2019t come for Christians.<\/p>\n
Jesus came that all might become<\/em> Christians \u2013 believers in Him.<\/p>\n Jesus didn\u2019t come for a lot of the things we associate with Christmas\u2026 because those associations persuade us to unwrap them, and then put them away with other decorations, for another year.<\/p>\n God\u2019s goodness and mercy are not meant to be commemorated and call down more in one \u201crelevant\u201d season, more than in the rest of the year. Christ\u2019s sacrifice and resurrection should not be contemplated during Easter alone. I wonder if there has ever been a church that has celebrated Christmas and Easter on each others\u2019 dates! Odd? No merely rare, but perfectly appropriate contemplation, veneration, and truths.<\/p>\n OK \u2013 I\u2019ll tell you what\u2019s out of place in this idea. Santa Claus, overweight, that full head of hair and whiskers, in that head-to-toe flannel outfit. Sleighs, snowmen, all those things on Christmas cards \u2013 in Springtime? Or\u2026 hunting for colored eggs; bunnies; fancy hats \u2013 in the middle of Winter?<\/p>\n The trappings of these holidays \u2013 holy days \u2013 are actually just that: Traps.<\/p>\n Jesus has been born into your life every day of your life; not on December 25. God chose to become human to bear witness, to remind us that He knows of our sorrows and dreams and hurts and joys. He came to fill the need we all have for a Savior\u2026 which is the case every day, not one day.<\/p>\n And Jesus took our sins, and takes our sins, upon Himself\u2026 not on one Springtime weekend, but every moment of our lives. Not only that, but while we were yet sinners. He suffered rejection, torture, death. Good Friday is today. He rose from the dead. That is still true, not an ancient tradition. He ascended to Heaven, and He still reigns.<\/p>\n I do not condemn Christmas trees because they had a pagan origin; nor colored eggs as symbols of fertility in some peoples\u2019 rites. All things are made new. But let us not condemn ourselves to mechanical celebrations and misguided holidays, either. When we are Children of the King, wherever we stand is Holy Ground. Whenever we acknowledge Him is a Holy Day.<\/p>\n Maybe we need to give a new meaning to that nickname of Christmas and Easter Christians, \u201cChreasters\u201d! Let\u2019s take it back!<\/p>\n Oh, we need peace on earth, and we need goodwill toward men on whom God shows favor. We are compassed about by fears and dangers \u2013 some imagined; some very<\/em> real. But our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus\u2019 blood and righteousness; not Santas and bunnies.<\/p>\n Lest I drift into even more clich\u00e9s, I challenge you to call to mind \u201cother\u201d Christian observances, every time one greets you \u2013 especially at Christmas and Easter. Our Savior was, after all, the Alpha and the Omega.<\/p>\n The Beginning and<\/em> the End. Jesus came to die. That we might live. The Lord of all, come as a baby. The Lord Almighty, surrendering to suffering and death.<\/p>\n A country singer named Joey Feek can give birth to a Downs\u2019 Syndrome baby and then learn she has terminal cancer\u2026 and sings Jesus Loves Me<\/em>. The blind opera singer Andrea Bocelli can sing Amazing Grace<\/em> \u2013 \u201cI was blind, but now I see,\u201d and mean it.<\/p>\n You figure it out. I\u2019ll just worship Him. Every day<\/em> is a holy day.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n For readers with hand-held devices, click or copy and paste:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bpXwOSHTwsY<\/p>\n