So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:8)The scripture may be a bit out of context, but I like it. The point is that we are at that strange place that is no longer Thanksgiving and not yet Christmas. Advent doesn’t start until next week so today is kind of a free weekend.
I just read an article about how people are beginning to hate Christmas and some want to ban gifts. And there are those who hate Thanksgiving, too. They are not all that keen on being dependent and thanking someone so if they just ignore the whole thing, they will be fine.
Thanksgiving and Christmas have both turned into something weird in our modern world. Thanksgiving is nothing but gluttony and Christmas is a retail fest. Someone wrote not long ago that retailers have ruined all of the holidays and I believe it. They go from Valentine’s Day the day after Christmas, then Easter and Mother’s Day, then July fourth. There is a lull until Halloween comes (the second biggest grossing retail holiday of the year), a brief stop at Thanksgiving and then Christmas (which starts the day after Halloween).
It can make a person jaundiced and somewhat depressed. But what you have to do is look past the retail stuff and see the real thing.
I will admit that Christmas music at the first of November really irritates me. Especially when places like the grocery store (which I do not think of when I think of Christmas) starts playing it on November 1. Christmas decorations at the mall on the first of November rankle me too.
But on the other hand, what can I do about it? Nothing. I can rage against the night, or I can just decide to celebrate Christmas my way. I choose to do it the right way.
Christmas music in WalMart on the first of November has a desperate ring to it. There is no joy, no peace, no celebration. There is only the fervent desire to get me to buy something and the Christmas music is nothing but a means to an end.
But at the same time, I love Christmas. Last Friday, we got out the boxes of Christmas stuff and we are looking at them deciding where to put what in our new house here in Longton, Kansas.
Yes, there is Christmas in Kansas. And we will celebrate it both in our home and in church.
Whatever you want or whatever you think, Christmas is coming and you can do nothing about it. So you might as well celebrate the coming of the Lord as a little baby in a manger almost 2000 years ago. God loved us enough to send his only born Son. Love him enough to acknowledge it.
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