The Heart of Godনমুনা

  Arguments Over Christmas 

  People sometimes ask, “Do you like Christmas?” Like it? God planned the world for it! The incarnation is the key to unlocking the mystery of history and binding the meaning of its days together like pages in a book. Without Christmas the world would be completely meaningless. Ancient saints looked ahead toward Christmas to grasp their meaning, while contemporary Christians look back at it for the same reason.  

The coming and work of Christ are God’s greatest achievement, so not to worship on Christmas Day is scandalous. It is His day, not the “Festival of Fried Geese.” Those who quibble about December 25th having been a pagan midwinter celebration have no perspective whatsoever. They may as well say we can’t grow wheat in a field, because thorns once grew there. 

Then there are those who rail against its commercialization, complaining about people who spend what they don’t have on gifts no one needs. Their complaint is how all the buying, selling, getting, and owning insults a celebration of family, faith, and giving. Again, they are long on rhetoric, but short on perspective, and forget that they don’t know what they don’t know. 

“Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh…” (1Timothy 3:16, NIV). Christmas honors the incarnation, the coming of the Word made flesh just as John 1:14 proclaims, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (NKJV). 

This is the meaning Christmas, apart from any complementary interpretations, conflicting viewpoints, religious spin, or vain arguments.