If you surveyed a dozen people about the true meaning of Christmas, would you get a dozen different responses? Might some of them be like this:
- A national holiday observing a rich heritage
- A special occasion with family and close friends
- An annual day for giving and sharing
- A beautiful season of lights, decorations, and traditions
- A religious observance based on the Christian faith
WOULD the ages of those responding influence their replies? Would a six-year-old say something different than a sixty-year-old?
NOTICE the word “true.” Not just the meaning, but the true meaning. Is there a difference? I believe there is since Christmas is observed both as secular and religious. However, if we assign partiality to the spiritual, then what is the true meaning of Christmas from that perspective?
- Is it about a baby?
- How about the star?
- The angels and shepherds?
- Fulfillment of OT prophecies?
- Something to do with God?
TRUE demands that nothing be false. So, the meaning must be real, not a vague story with warm and fuzzy feelings. I have nothing against warm and fuzzy providing it’s based on something authentic.
FOR me, the reality of Christmas is rooted in Immanuel’s truth, that God came to his people. That he arrived as the infant king of kings and became the Lord of Lords to set us back at one with the Father.
THE one who came was born to die. He entered this dark world with the divine light of illuminated truth. He left to give us the greatest gift ever given: the Holy Spirit.
My true meaning of Christmas: Jesus Christ, God’s anointed, came to save us.
Shalom
Rick Fyffe 