Behold! The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” God with us. (Matthew 1:23).
The World has a way of watering down Christian Holidays. Today, if you do not want to offend anyone, it is proper to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Lately, I find myself saying Merry Christmas especially if I discern you are a Christian and celebrate the birth of Christ. The Christmas season is commercialized, gift giving and receiving. To be honest with you, I do not need anything else in this house, if anything I need to give things away that I have not used and are still new.
Two weeks ago, I was teaching Sunday school, and the children attempted to redirect the conversation away from the birth and significance of Christ to Santa Claus; not wanting to seem like a Scrooge, I told them how I left chocolate cake and soda for Santa because I knew he would be hungry. I eventually redirected the conversation back to the reason for the season and the greatest gift of all and the importance of Christ birth.
We must take a minute to pause and redirect our loved ones and friends back to the real reason for the season. We have a responsibility as Christians to profess the priceless gift that God sent his son and they call him Jesus and life is worth the living just because he lives. It does not matter what the world does, we as followers of Christ can do things differently in honoring the birth of Christ. Yes, I am glad that my mother did not let us skip out on all the secular activates around the Christmas holiday, but we knew the real reason why we celebrated Christmas and the significance of the birth of Christ. My mother believed Christmas was every day and we should not wait for one day out of the year to celebrate Christmas. I can recall about three years my mother did not get me and my brothers anything for Christmas. Although I thought she was crazy, I never felt deprived when I received some of my wants during the year. Besides, other family members would bring gifts to the house. I am glad they call Christ Immanuel, God with us because the Lord has never left me alone. Christ has always been with me during my life, so regardless of all the gift giving and receiving, I now know that I received the greatest gift when Christ was born in order the I might have the right to the tree of life. I encourage you to remember the real reason for the season of hope and expectation, which is greater than anything you will ever receive under the Christmas tree. God Bless.
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