Christmas is a time of pageantry and celebration; it is a time of promise and a time of hope. For most of the world Christmas is a time of Magic. Christmas is a time of presents and a time of lights, sounds and tastes and even a time of traditions.
Growing up in the buckle of the Bible belt we grew up hearing the story of Jesus birth in a manger. We were told of the three Kings who traveled from distant lands to meet the Christ Child that was born King of the Jews. Children around the world are chosen to portray angels, shepherds, Kings, lambs and cows, playing parts in Elementary School Christmas plays; each player clad in hastily sewn costumes, tin foil covered crowns, bearing gifts of glitter covered perfume bottles, and paper Mache boxes festooned with rhinestone jewels or Gold painted elbow macaroni.
We get caught up in the glitz and the glamour of the decorations and the gifts and yet we over look the meaning for the season. Year after year we are reminded of what the day portends through Christmas Carols and Television specials. Yet the true message eludes us and we find ourselves asking as Scrooge asked, “Is this the hope you mentioned?”
We look into the cradle and miss the message. We see the child of Christmas but miss Emmanuelle our God with us. We adore the star of the north but forget that it is by his stripes that we are healed. We fail to connect the birth with the death that it is foretold in it. We see the gift but are blind to the sacrifice behind it.
So much has been lost. We dare not allow Christmas to become just a secular holiday that may or may not include the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. But the message that we sow has to include not only the babe in the manger but the man of the cross. That message has to take the place of the lights and the presents and the tastes and even our traditions. We have to say as Scrooge said, “It’s not too late, there is still time.”
Christmas has its cradle; Easter has its cross - Rae E. Whitney
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