Ah, Christmas! Never is there a more joyous time. I remember last year just feeling the Christmas atmosphere. The air just felt happy, and it was only complimented by the many wonderful lights. Have you ever been to Manhattan on Christmas Eve? Sure, the traffic is insane, but it's truly awesome. There are so many lights and it just feels like a cheerful time of the year.
I heard something interesting while at work this week.
I'm a cashier at a busy supermarket, so I'm always interacting with people. You have the patient nice people and...well the opposite. Thankfully for the most part I haven't had much of the latter. (Though I could only imagine what working in the city is like...) But anyways, there was a pretty interesting occurrence. 'Merry Christmas' has always been a normal thing to say, yet when I said that to one customer, she said, "Not many people say 'Merry Christmas' anymore." This stood with me, because how can that be?? Has Christmas been sunken into just another holiday part of the 'Happy Holidays' slogan?
Like Easter, Christmas has been adapted for people that don't wish to celebrate the meaning of why it exists in the first place.
But what is Christmas? Not too long ago I discovered a band called Kutless. If you haven't listened to them yet, check out 'Promise of a Lifetime' and 'Carry Me to the Cross,' But, the song in focus is called 'This is Christmas.' It's a pitch-perfect song explaining Christmas. Take a look at this piece of it...
What is Christmas?
If there never was a Savior wrapped in a manger.
What is Christmas without Christ?
Christmas wouldn't exist without the birth of Jesus. It is an event to be celebrated, but He has been replaced with Santa Claus. The other major Christian event, Easter Sunday, has also been adapted into a secular culture, replacing the Resurrection with a Bunny that gives out eggs.
Good Friday we remember the Death, Easter Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection, and on Christmas we celebrate the Birth. Do you know why it's tradition to put a star on top of a Christmas Tree? Not because it looks pretty (but it certainly does!) but because it represents the Star of Bethlehem.
So however you celebrate Christmas, it's important to remember that without the birth of a Savior, December 25th would just be another cold winter day.
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ~Luke 2:11
And of course, to anyone who is reading this,
MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)
Solid editorial Destroyer. It's a valid point that people have begun to use Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. I'll admit that I'm guilty of having done that a few times by mistake. It's almost a habit to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas which is a bad habit to say the least. We just need to keep the true meaning of Christmas in our thoughts and remind ourselves to say Merry Christmas and forget those habits. Without the birth of Christ, Christmas would indeed be meaningless and would not even exist right now.
ReplyDeleteMERRY CHRISTMAS DESTROYER!