The holiday season is rapidly approaching. Retail stores, who have had their Christmas merchandise on display since Halloween, are in full swing. Wrapping paper, toys, bows, electronics, twinkling lights and artificial trees surround us. Although the Christmas excitement is in the air, there is also the stress of knowing that Christmas is only six short weeks away. The world is being consumed with the holiday but the focus and the reason we celebrate Christmas is being snuffed out.
For those of us who know and love Jesus Christ, Christmas is a time to focus on the birth of our Lord and Savior. The problem is even we sometimes get caught up in the whirl of activity surrounding the season and can miss Christmas in a practical sense. Satan has so cluttered the Christian concept of Christmas with needless paraphernalia that its true meaning is easily lost. Without Jesus’ birth, there would be no way for Christ to die in order to atone for our sins and rise again to take His seat at the right hand of God.
People tend to miss Christ at Christmas time. He gets crowded out by a world that dictates what they should think, do, and buy. It is okay to enjoy the Christmas season and all of its traditions; but we need to remember that our main focus needs to be on the simplicity and celebration of the birth of Christ; not our traditions, a sea of traditions, most of which being rooted in pagan origins.
Society now tells us that in order to be politically correct we have to say, “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” In fact, most of the businesses you’ll enter will actually forbid their employees from saying “Merry Christmas.” Let’s not be ashamed to put Christ back in Christmas this year. As we look forward to Thanksgiving feasts and begin our preparations for Christmas, please remember that as Christians we should not be consumed by this world’s thinking but keep our focus on Jesus Christ.
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