Christmas has always been my favourite time of the year. The lights, the carol singing, the gifts. Everything is fun, but it brings more meaning when it is done with family and that’s why Christmas to me is all about spreading love and joy.
The one thing that brings family together is decorating the house for Christmas. This could never be a solo task. The joy in planning how to spend 25th December every year has always been the topic of discussion even before December begins. This year mum decided to reach out to people who aren’t aware of what Christmas really is. I invited a few colleagues from work (each belonging to a different religion) to come home and celebrate Christmas in its truest sense.
In today’s world, Christmas has become all about Santa Clause, giving him the centre place during the festive season. We have slowly forgotten Christ. The mythical story of how Santa Clause rides over a reindeer gives us more joy than the historical story of Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem. Maybe it is time to change this back to how Christmas originally began and what it truly represents. It is time that we realized that spreading joy can only come with Christ and not putting Santa Clause above him.
When I look at the story of Christ’s birth, we learn so many things from the baby Jesus. In the words of Loretta Lynn,
“The cattle are lowing, the Baby awakes, But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes”.
The words imply that the baby Jesus never made a fuss of being woken by the herd of cattle around him or the uncomfortable cradle he slept on. All he knew was Mama Mary was holding him close to her and he was at peace within. Mama Mary never stopped anyone from coming to watch her baby but looked with tender eyes upon every visitor knowing they have come to visit Emmanuel (God with us).
In a world where loud horns are blown to welcome important guests, Jesus (the only Son of God) was welcomed to the world on a silent night holy night. This marks that God works through silence for all the great things to happen to us.
Even though he was born in a manger, the three gifts he received had a spiritual meaning: gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death. Jesus came, he saw and he conquered. True God in all.
Heaven was singing and so was the earth. That’s how great the birth of Jesus Christ was and will be till the end of time.
We know the birth of Christ as a story we love telling little kids but when we reflect upon every detail that took place on that day, we realize how each detail symbolizes him to be God of all. Keeping this in mind, this Christmas to me is more of Christ; knowing him closer and spreading the same love and joy around that was celebrated on his birthday, in Heaven and here on earth!
How would you want your Christmas to be special this year?
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