Last December, I posted an old letter of mine on the local liberal blog. It was to the editor of a newspaper in Monterey, California. Some of the examples are a little dated (it was published in 1990 – some 16 years ago), but if you’ve got the time, here’s a link to it (If you don’t have the time, just continue on):
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/panhandletruthsquad/113416374198343405/#225968
Lately, I’ve been reflecting a little more on why some people would rather avoid thinking about whose birth we’re celebrating. While it’s true that Jesus had to be born of a woman, His ultimate mission was to die for your sins and for mine.
The words of the song “Start at the Manger” from the musical “The Christmas Post” sum it up well:
Start at the manger on a cold winter night.
Look for the star in the sky, then follow its light.
It leads to a Savior for a world that is lost.
Start at the manger, then go to the cross.
The whole idea of ones own personal sinfulness makes people uncomfortable, especially at Christmas time, so we dwell on the peripherals: Santa Claus, Ebenezer Scrooge, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman. We concentrate on the warm fuzzies and traditions of the season and try to sublimate our own feelings of worthlessness. Yet it seems that more people suffer from depression at Christmas than any other time of the year.
Oswald Chambers tackled the issue striaght on:
“Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is a farce, there was no need for it. What the world needs is not ‘a little bit of love,’ but a surgical operation.”
I’ll close with the opening words of a seldom sung verse to the Christmas carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”:
Oh Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray.
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
I’d like to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas – no, better make that a Holy, Blessed Christmas.