My girls are tucked in and asleep, the house is quiet, it's (very) early Christmas morning. In the quiet of this night I find myself meditating unbidden - drawn to do so - on what this day should mean, what it can mean, what it does mean...to all of humanity.
Because Holy God chose to lower Himself, to constrain Himself within human flesh, to walk and live and breath within the bounds of time that He created - we can choose to waste the very finite little space in time we each occupy on our avarice acquiring things that will rot and disappear - or we can choose to be redeemed.
Because God the Father, the great and only I AM chose to say I WILL for His love of us alone, and incarnated His deity into a babe growing within the virgin womb of a young girl to be born in a form that knew hunger, knew ache, knew pain - we can ignore Him, reject Him, turn away from His love and walk this world in our darkness, alone - or we can be adopted.
Because God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, chose to bear the weight of all of our sins upon Himself, to be battered, bruised, torn, beaten, and more horribly abused than anyone who has ever lived - for no other reason than He is merciful beyond measure, kind beyond all reason, and loves beyond all bounds - we can choose to worship the false idols of lust, envy, property, hatred, wealth, knowledge, food, drink, music, mates...or (as all ultimately serves), the idol of self - or we can be forgiven.
We can love, honor, obey, treasure, the King of Kings only because of what He has done. Only because of what He chose to do, only because of what he offers, only because of the way He has made, the path He has revealed.
Only because He calls us to Himself.
On this day we call Christmas, this day that we so long ago chose to use to honor Him by celebrating His birth; do we do it?
Do we do it by raising our children up to know His name as one to be adored, one to be worshipped and glorified? Or do we teach our children to use His name as a cheap profanity? Do we explain so that they understand that the giving of gifts is meant as a remembrance of the greatest gift of all, that He gave for all of us in the spilling of His innocent blood to save us from the eternal damnation that every single one who has ever lived so completely deserves? Or do we teach them that Christmas is a time for get all you can take?
Many people who do not know or love Jesus Christ love to prattle on about the fact that He was not born to Mary and Joseph on December the 25th. Christians know this - we choose to use this day to remember that by being born into humanity, by becoming one of us who were all created in His image to begin with (ponder that little fact a while!), by leaving His throne and piercing our darkness with His light, he made a way for each of us to be saved - to be born once again.
Should we not be more concerned with that than with tinsel and toaster ovens? Should we not be consumed with ensuring that each and every person we meet comes to know Jesus as Lord and Savior? If our actions at Christmas were the actions of Jesus' people, if our deeds spoke His name only, and our hearts were filled with continual intercessory prayer for the lost we could change the image of Christmas. We could make Christmas reflect the image of Christ. And Christmas Day, rather than being a holiday celebration of the birth of Jesus, could come to also be seen as a Holy Day that celebrated the birth of countless people who would be born into Christ by our obedience to the Gospel.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. - Matthew 28:19-20
Happy Birthday my Lord Jesus! To each and every soul on earth who has just this day had the lights turned on, I say "Welcome Brother! Welcome Sister! Merry Christmas, and a Happy Birthday to you too!!"
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