Written by Léo & Faye Gaumont, published on 2013-12-23.
Praise God for the most indescribable gift of His only begotten son!
Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the blogger which, although based on personal experience and knowledge of the scriptures, can be in error. No one has a corner on the truth but we should all sincerely be in search of it.
Bible Reference: John 3:16
Christmas! What is it? What are we celebrating? Christians would usually answer, the birth of Jesus. Secularists would rather pressure for the renaming of Christmas to “Winter Fest” or “Santa Day” or some other meaningless term to rid Christmas of its Christian influence. Too bad for them that so many of our favourite carols have such a clear message of rejoicing over the birth of our Lord and Saviour.
Truthfully, Jesus was not likely born on December 25th. We don’t have a birthday for Him. We do have narratives about relatives, stables, shepherds, angels and kings, most of which we do not have an actual timeline for, but which makes for a great story when combined as a single event. Some say that Christmas is the “Christianization” of a pagan holiday more connected to the winter solstice than to actual biblical events and some blame Constantine for it’s introduction. We can probably blame the modern day commercialization of Christmas on those who would benefit the most from continuing with the gifting, decorating, foods and other associated festivities.
A few years ago, we ran into a problem while facilitating. A certain sect of Christians where completely unavailable for three days in connection with Easter. Our curiosity compelled us to ask why this was the case. What happened was very interesting. We got three different answers, all claiming a scriptural basis, yet no answer was defendable from a biblical perspective. These fine folks did not actually mean to be un-biblical, it was just that it had been a part of their culture for so long, it was assumed to biblical. A wonderful cultural tradition that cannot be defended as biblical, yet still worth preserving as it is centered on family. Christmas, likewise, cannot be defended as biblical, yet as long as Jesus can remain the reason for the season and families will gather to refocus on our love for God and for family, it is a worthy tradition to keep.
All of us at Education Unlimited, wish all of you a Merry Christmas. May Jesus continue to be why we celebrate the season, even if it is not actually His birthday. While sharing the faith, let us not forget to mention that there was an even greater event that took place in Jesus’ ministry than His birth. His sacrifice on the cross and victory over death that purchased our redemption. Salvation is much more worth celebrating than a fictitious birthday!