Christmas is a special time of year in America. While some are willing to point to the commercialism of Christmas as a criticism it is appropriate to note that it is this commercialism that makes up a lot of our experience and expectation of the day. I'm not saying that this is a negative thing. I'm only remarking on it.
And think about it. Wasn't that a lot of the Christmas experience for you? I can remember seeing my mother try and hide the fact that she was bringing in packages. Then 'hiding' them. lol. It made me anticipate the season. And all the decorations she would put up. She had a candle set in letters that spelled 'Noel'. I changed them around to spell 'Leon'. lol.
My favorite gift of all time was a BB gun. I was 7 and my big brother gave it to me. I was virtually inseparable from that BB gun for several years. I remember the time of getting that gift. My brother came over to the house later in the day and he started rummaging around under the sheet at the base of the tree and he pulled something out and held it up and said: ''It looks like there's one more present here." It was the gun. I never expected it and I was completely taken up in the excitement. The memory brings a smile to my face.
And then there's the 'spiritual' aspect of Christmas. It is of course primarily a holiday about Jesus. The Church instituted the observation of Christmas so it would be a perpetual reminder of God's love by choosing a Pagan holiday for the event. This was to make it easier for Pagan converts to Christianity to adjust in their lives. At Christmas we can see this emphasis on God's love most clearly because that's what the spiritual aspect of Christmas is all about. God has been represented as loving those who dwell on the earth and that he gave his Son to intervene on their behalf and to reconcile their alienation from him. This happens when we recognize and respond to the idea that in this universe God loves us.
God has represented his love in this manner. He has used the image of a family relationship, that of Father and Son, something everybody is familiar with and he spoke to us in that framework. God represents himself as someone who would love us enough to give his son on our behalf. Think about that. Who would you love enough to give up a child for? Well God in his way of trying to communicate with us has said: 'Hey you can understand this. I love you this much'. The amazing thing to me is that in the Christian message of the Gospel it is this attitude that is said to motivate all of God's activities.
Large parts of Islam and Judaism are also filled with the imagery of a God that loves the created order and those who live in it. God loves you; it's an idea whose time has come.
PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN (AND WOMEN)
And think about it. Wasn't that a lot of the Christmas experience for you? I can remember seeing my mother try and hide the fact that she was bringing in packages. Then 'hiding' them. lol. It made me anticipate the season. And all the decorations she would put up. She had a candle set in letters that spelled 'Noel'. I changed them around to spell 'Leon'. lol.
My favorite gift of all time was a BB gun. I was 7 and my big brother gave it to me. I was virtually inseparable from that BB gun for several years. I remember the time of getting that gift. My brother came over to the house later in the day and he started rummaging around under the sheet at the base of the tree and he pulled something out and held it up and said: ''It looks like there's one more present here." It was the gun. I never expected it and I was completely taken up in the excitement. The memory brings a smile to my face.
And then there's the 'spiritual' aspect of Christmas. It is of course primarily a holiday about Jesus. The Church instituted the observation of Christmas so it would be a perpetual reminder of God's love by choosing a Pagan holiday for the event. This was to make it easier for Pagan converts to Christianity to adjust in their lives. At Christmas we can see this emphasis on God's love most clearly because that's what the spiritual aspect of Christmas is all about. God has been represented as loving those who dwell on the earth and that he gave his Son to intervene on their behalf and to reconcile their alienation from him. This happens when we recognize and respond to the idea that in this universe God loves us.
God has represented his love in this manner. He has used the image of a family relationship, that of Father and Son, something everybody is familiar with and he spoke to us in that framework. God represents himself as someone who would love us enough to give his son on our behalf. Think about that. Who would you love enough to give up a child for? Well God in his way of trying to communicate with us has said: 'Hey you can understand this. I love you this much'. The amazing thing to me is that in the Christian message of the Gospel it is this attitude that is said to motivate all of God's activities.
Large parts of Islam and Judaism are also filled with the imagery of a God that loves the created order and those who live in it. God loves you; it's an idea whose time has come.
PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN (AND WOMEN)
