FAITH & REFLECTION -- Christmas is over for another year, but sometimes a retroactive glance at the busy and blessed season can be more productive than our analysis of it while it is speedily and frenetically unfolding.
Post-Christmas comments are certainly not all coming up roses. One online caption states that "Christmas Is the World's Greatest Annual Disaster." A blogger, in response to that caption, described Christmas as "A Christmas tree holocaust with overspending, mostly on children's toys and unnecessary things and overspending on Christmas decorations. Overeating, over drinking, overcrowded shopping malls followed with extensive anxiety attacks and exhaustion, coupled with a maximum point of carbon emission and a serious need for post-holiday recovery."
Surveys have been done before, during and after Christmas. One preacher did his own survey following Christmas. The following is his list of one-line sentiments. "I'm celebrating that I made it through another year," "I'm celebrating being home with my family," "I got a Christmas bonus,", "My son is home from Iraq," "The candidate I voted for got elected," "I'm celebrating that I finished all my shopping," "I'm not celebrating anything. I'm just trying to survive."
So much of the foregoing is negative. No wonder Charlie Brown cried out in exasperation, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" Linus rose to the challenge and quoted, from memory, flawlessly and eloquently, Luke 2:8 – 14 (I call his monologue the gospel according to Linus). Linus' introduction of Jesus into the confusion and controversy of "Charlie Brown's Christmas" immediately resulted in calmness and harmony. This is a not-so-subtle hint that removing Christ from Christmas produces pandemonium – giving Him His rightful place results in peace.
Christmas, perhaps more than any other occasion, is a time that reminds us of God's love; this love is manifested by His love gift, His Son, Jesus. John 3:16 captures this fact so well by highlighting God's love, God's gift and God's promise.
There is a story told of a little boy who was very poor. He had no toys and received no gifts for Christmas. He spent his spare time looking in store windows at the nice toys that he knew he would never have. One day he was run down by a car and taken to the hospital. A compassionate nurse, knowing that he had little, bought him a toy and presented it to him. As he touched the toy he exclaimed, "There isn't any glass between!"
That is what Christmas is about. Man has been looking for God and God has been looking for man. But with the arrival of Jesus, God's gift of a Savior to mankind, for those who believe in Him, there is no longer any glass between!