Christmas
Like every other baby, He was birthed in groanings, blood, and cries.
In a manger, his audience was mainly lambs.
But heaven's light shone, and we heard the angels sing:
“Hosanna! Blessed be the name of our King!”
Centuries later, and the birth of Yeshua the Anointed is still a memory we can’t do away with. What happened nine months after the word of the Lord came unto Mary in that day is of eternal relevance to the world and all of humanity.
It is celebrated every the 25th of December all over the world, but why? Not just why December, but also why celebrate it at all? Is Christmas beyond a dogmatic celebration?
Christmas As A Holiday
Christmas as a traditional holiday dates back as far as A.D 273. Two pagan holidays were celebrated on that day to honor the sun, so this holiday might have started then to counter these festivals. Some people still feel uncomfortable because of this, but many will agree that the gospel does not just transcend culture; it also transforms it. A theologian once said: “We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it.” Meanwhile, it is agreed that by the Western Church that March is the annunciation or immaculate conception of Jesus in Mary's womb.Evergreen trees are used to symbolize eternal life; Candles to symbolize Christ as the light of the world; Holly stands for the thorns in the crown; red for the blood and death; and gifts to remind us of the gifts given to Jesus as a baby and how He is God’s saving gift to the world.
Christmas Beyond the Holiday
No matter our reasons for celebrating Christ's birth, what should be the most important is that it is a remembrance of Christ's incarnation. We can gather to eat chickens, celebrate with (extended) families, do charity, have church meetings, but we must always remember that the reason for the season is that Christ came as was prophesied.People go about these days ignoring that the Lord will one day come to take the Saints with him to eternity; the argument goes around the fact that years have gone by, and if there truly is a God in heaven, he is slow. Death is agreed to be the end, but man must remember that the coming Jesus as man amidst men is the fulfillment of thousands of years of promise.
When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden, God made a promise to the devil. He said:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her seed.
He will crush your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
(Genesis 3)
Many think this refers to the present discord between man and snakes, but it is not so. Firstly, it is not everywhere snakes are killed or that snakes kill men. Secondly, the serpent was only a representation of the devil as seen by Moses in a vision.
The enmity God meant was that he would come to put an end to the union man now had with the devil because he believed the instruction of the devil over that of God. With time, it became clearer through further prophecies that God will come as a man, the kingdom shall be on his shoulders, and he will save his people from their sins. His people do not mean Israel alone, but even Gentiles shall come to the knowledge of his rising.
The number one essence of Christ's incarnation to us then is that we serve a God who is not slack according to his promises as some men think, but he is long-suffering and not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2Peter 3:9) Hallelujah! Christ is coming back, and the fulfillment of the prophecies of incarnation reminds us of this.
Furthermore, we are assured that whatever God promises us shall be fulfilled. He is not a man that should lie, neither a son of man that he should repent. If he says, he will do it. So often, believers give up on God because of a delayed promise, victory, or blessing, but the precedence of Christ's incarnation in the Holy Bible teaches us that we serve a God who can do what he has promised. He is the kind of God that promised Abraham a child and fulfilled it in his old age; he is the God who promised Joseph the throne and still kept his word despite the attack of the devil through man.
One more lesson from God's prophecy of Christ's incarnation (Christmas) is how he promised that the seed is Him. Christ was not born of the will of man. In the same way, God said, “Let there be Light,” and there was light. He also said “a child shall be born of you” to Mary, and it was so. Of course, it is a miracle that a child was birthed without the mating of a man and woman, but this was also playing out God's prophecies. Shall we then not celebrate such a miraculous birth of a miraculous being?
Finally, the question to ask is, “why only the 25th of December?” Of course, the kind of celebration that occurs on the 25th of December can happen only once a year, or at the most twice. We cannot travel down-home, kill animals, decorate houses, and have large feasts every time. However, the truth is Christ’s incarnation has an eternal relevance to us, so our celebration of it should be eternal. In other words, the birth of baby Jesus should be celebrated by everyone who has enjoyed the salvation He brought, every day.
Not just every day, but an hour, minute, and second. This definitely cannot be a festival, but in our hearts, we should always sanctify our thoughts in reverence of what He has made available. The communication that proceeds out of our mouths should show that, indeed, the savior is perfect; his sacrifice is complete, and those who receive him shall never perish.
Christmas is beyond a holiday; it is a way of life.
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