'Tis the season when Christians everywhere start forum threads and write articles and take surveys and talk over pumpkin-spiced coffee about how we can get the focus out of the department stores and back on Christ's birth.
We hear the same questions again and again: How can we keep our hearts in the right place, rise above the commercialism, and make sure that our children understand that the true meaning and importance of Christmas isn't how many gifts Santa brings?
I think it's the wrong question. In fact, I think it's so thoroughly, completely, RESOUNDINGLY the wrong question that so long as we keep asking it, we'll never find an answer.
The answer isn't in finding a way to take back Christmas. It isn't in refocusing our views of that day, or the season as a whole, on Christ. It's in living that--and teaching our children to live that--every day. If God is at the center of your family's life on a day-to-day basis, God will be at the center of your Christmas season. If He's not, then no amount of dramatic proclamations about what Christmas should be is going to change that--not in the short-term or the long-term.
Just as what your children (and you, and I) put into and get out of church depends upon the relationships we maintain with God and his son during the week, what we put into and get out of the Christmas season depends on the place God holds in our lives the rest of the year. Christmas isn't a time to change gears and suddenly pay more attention to God because it's the time we celebrate Christ's birthday--it's the time to commemorate the birth of someone who is already special and significant in our lives.
While the commercialism of Christmas may be something of a distraction, it's hard to imagine a child who lives every day with an awareness of God and a connection to Christ suddenly losing sight of those things because there are gifts on the horizon. It's equally hard to imagine one who hears (and thinks) about God only for 45 minutes on Sunday morning being truly prepared for Christmas just because we made loud noises about what the season is "really all about".
The issue isn't what Christmas is really all about, or what Easter is really all about, or Sunday is really all about...it's about what LIFE is really all about. If we get that right--if we even strive to get that right--our hearts and minds will be in the right place when the momentous occasions arise.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
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12 comments:
MAM X,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
:)
Great post!
Merry Christmas!!!
*clap**clap*
Well put, well put.
When I was a kid my family would have a cake and sing 'Happy Birthday' to Jesus. We even had a slice of cake set next to the little figurine of Jesus in the manger.
I can't recall how we resolved the fights over who got to eat that piece.
Couldn't have said it better!
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It's February 1st and a Friday night. I just finished watching a movie that helps me remember to keep Christmas in my heart year round. We can all use a friendly reminder. Here in Utah we love Christmas! Most of my friends would agree that keeping the right perspective of "the big picture" of life is best done on a daily basis so that those momentous occasions (as you so wisely pointed out) will indeed be handled well with love. Merry Christmas to a great person who is encouraging us all to reach deep within our souls and grab hold of the more noble desires of our hearts - and never let go.
Hi CatholicInside! It was nice reading this specific entry in your website. =) Heartwarming that like me, you also feel the same thing about Christmas.
I'll leave a blog I made last December. Maybe, if you have time, you can read about it. It's jsut nice that somehow, we share the same beliefs in that aspect.
http://jazzyjean-jazzyjean.blogspot.com/2007/12/as-world-with-major-established-social.html
God bless. Have a nice day!
JazzyJean
This is such a nice post. I know I'm reading this later in the year but I really enjoyed what you had to say about the meaning of LIFE. That's what it's all about. Thanks!
Good, thoughtful post. When I see the "reason for the season" marketing slogans, I can't help but think of my Latin classes, where we discussed the use of the Saturnalia and Yule celebrations as "covers" for a Christian celebration of an event that probably happened at an entirely different time of year.
Advertisers are just using the same strategy of using a seasonal celebration as cover for their own agendas.
[As someone born on Dec. 25th, I have to say it was something of a relief to realize that the timing of Christ-mas was a matter of social convenience, and _that_ was why I was the "only" child who had to give things to _other_ people on my birthday...]
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