The true meaning of Christmas!
How many of you have seen a Charlie Brown Christmas? I’ve only seen it in full a couple of times but one of my favorite scenes in this short film was when Charlie Brown was showing off his tiny little Christmas tree, and all of his friends began to laugh at him. Then Charlie Brown yells, doesn’t anyone know what Christmas is all about? Then Linus, the one who always sucks his thumb and carries around a blanket, says sure Charlie brown I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Than Linus from memory tells the Christmas story from the Gospel, how the angels appeared to the shepherds in the field and toldthem of the Christ child who had been born in a manger and wrapped in swaddlingclothes.
This short film is such a cute movie, and if you haven’t seen it, I would suggest you find a copy of it and enjoy it as a family this Christmas. The lessons it tries and teach us still stay true today. Charlie Brownin the film got tied up in all of the commercialism of Christmas. I can easily get tied up into the commercialism of Christmas, all month I’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music on 96.1 the river. Every store you go to will have Christmas decorations,andsome will even havethose decorations up around Thanksgiving. Than we will wake up tomorrow and many of those decorations will be taken down. Christmas is a greattime for family gatherings to be generous to others, and it can be a time of joy when Santa brings us great gifts! However,Linus reminds us what the true meaning of Christmas is, that our savior has come to earth.
However, Christmas too is more than just the story of Jesus, our savior being born to Mary and laying in a manger. Something much more significant and more mysterious has happened for us on Christmas day. In the Gospel of John, we are shown the deeper meaning of this Christmas season. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as the Father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Christ is about the shepherds the animals who bow down to worship the baby Jesus, butit is too about the truth that the Word, God himself became flesh.
By taking on Flesh God enters into our experience, not just because he knows all things, is present to all things but too he is a man, he is a baby, and grew up to become a teenager, an adult, he had parents, cousins, friends, he experienced loss of friends, he cried, and so many other things. Christmas teaches us the truth that the Son of God who is fully God, is now fully man, and that Godmanis laying in a manger where shepherds, sheep, oxen, and even wise men from far away come to give him worship and praise.
I hope all of you have a blessed Christmas season; I hope you have a good time with your family and friends, I hope Santa is good to you. I too hope you enjoy good food and fellowship with your family members! However, in all of this don’t forget why we gather this time of year with family, and gifts, and good food. It is because “For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” I hope the joy of the Christ child brings you joy this Christmas season, and remember it is not only a small baby boy lying in the manger, rather it too is God’s only Son, the Word Made flesh, who came to redeem us, free us from our sin and bring us eternal life!
Tim's Blog 