Toward a Better Understanding of Christmas

The song says it is the most wonderful time of the year, but for some Christians it is easily the most awkward time of the year. All around we see reminders of Jesus and His birth. Jesus is the Reason for the Season and Wise Men Still Seek Him are written everywhere. Nativity scenes spring up in yards, stars top trees, and people who never go to church head for services on Christmas Eve.

Yet, to the amazement of many, this explosion of religious fervor each December isn’t a cause for rejoicing among discerning Christians. Indeed, these Christians relate very little to the religious aspects of the Christmas season. Unfortunately, confusion about this abounds. Here are a people who may be the very most religious folks around (going to church three times a week!) and yet these people are not celebrating Christmas as Jesus birthday. How can’that be? Westside’s complete lack of any kind of Christmas service, Christmas pageant, or Christmas party just confounds people. What folks expect is that we would be leading the Christmas parade, not quietly watching it go by. What is going on here?

Those questions are tough to answer in a two-minute conversation in the Wal-Mart checkout line or while watching the halftime show at a high school football game. Still, they are important questions that can be hard for puzzled people to ask, and they are questions that can be difficult for Christians to answer.

That is what this issue of Abundant Life is all about. If you don’t celebrate Christmas as the highlight of the religious year and need some help explaining to folks why, perhaps this material will help you.

If you don’t regularly attend a church of Christ and were given this link in response to questions about Christmas we hope you will be interested in being challenged by some new ideas. At the least this material will help you learn something of your friend’s approach to spiritual matters - and that is always good. Further, you may learn some things about Christmas that are different and even surprising. No one is going to blast Christmas as a pagan ritual in these pages but how we can serve Jesus in a way that pleases Him will certainly be carefully considered.

For whatever reason you are reading Abundant Life we pray that the Lord will bless your search for Him - not just in December but all year long.