The Christmas tradition
Christmas is a tradition in the Christian world that honours the birth of our lord Jesus Christ the son of God. Christmas has been known to be celebrated from years dating as back as 300AD. Christmas is celebrated on December 25 every year. Christmas is a sacred time for Christians –a time to praise the Lord for the gift he gave the world, a time to give thanks for the salvation of mankind and a time to remember the unconditional love the Lord has for us.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John 3:16 (King James Version)
The pastor at church once mentioned that the meaning of Christmas is fast being eroded and commercialised. I found that I was in total agreement with him. Christmas has become the great marketing tool, the festive season is time for hot business with the selling label being Christmas and we usually see it as ‘Xmas’. Is this to say Christ has been shortened to ‘X’? This is the interesting question. Why should the name Christ be shortened in the first place? Xmas bashes, Xmas sales, Xmas parties are fast becoming the new meaning of Christmas.
Christmas has become an excuse for people to behave recklessly in the name of celebrating. The Christmas season is when we hear of a lot of partying, drunken driving, spouses leaving their homes to spend time with lovers at the lake, people spending their whole salaries on things they can do without, random s exual coupling and a whole list goes on of unnecessary and inexcusable behaviour. Apparently it is all justified in the name of Christmas.
We are humans, we fail and lack in many ways but the least we can do is embrace the gift of love and respect the memory of the birth of Christ to give us life as our Lord and saviour. We live in a religious world and we also have a few atheists that do not believe in God and choose not to participate in such celebration—which is fine since it is also apparently a free world. But, if you believe in God, then you celebrate Christmas along with the rest of the Christian community.
We should not forget the meaning behind Christmas —love. We cannot become God and make big sacrifices for human kind, but we can honour the meaning behind Christmas, which is the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the son that God gave us, to save us, to die for our sins, a great sacrifice, one born out of true and unconditional love. God showed his love to the world through family.
The descendants of a common ancestor are called family; we all have descended from a family God created. Christmas time is family time. Christmas time is time for unity. Christmas time is time to be blessed and bless others. Christmas time is time to humble ourselves. Christmas is a time to show love and give love. Christmas is the time to spend with the people that matter in our life, that we would make sacrifices for and that we hold dearest to your heart.
Another special meaning behind Christmas is that of forgiveness. We were given salvation for our multitude of unspeakable sins that were forgiven because of the love the Lord has for his creation. This originated from the birth of Christ. Christmas is a time to embrace that, to forgive those we hold grudges against and to receive forgiveness. It is a time to forgive ourselves for the grudges we hold against ourselves and strive to be better people, to show more love to fellow mankind and to live a life of unity with others.
Christmas season is here. A time most of us are looking forward to. A time most of us celebrate in one way or the other.
Whether we party, go home, go to church, the questions remain, are we celebrating with love? Are we honouring the true meaning behind the Christmas tradition? Are we planning to be a blessing to someone like God blessed the world? Like God blesses us every day? Show some love today. Honour family today. Practice forgiveness today. And most of all, embrace joy and gratitude.
Season’s greetings!
