Weekend Talk: To identify Christmas

A man named Anane woke up on Christmas day feeling under the weather; that is, feeling unwell. 

But this was Christmas day and he wasn’t going to let a great day like this slip by without enjoying it to the fullest.

Therefore, Anane called his friends, male and female.  They headed for the places where they usually went to have fun and spent the day and part of the night enjoying themselves.  

By midnight when Anane, who was heavily drunk, returned home to his family, he was at the mercy of some of his slightly sober friends who dragged him along.

Anane deceived himself into thinking that what he “spent” was Christmas, but it was not.  

Neglecting his family, wasting resources in wild living and forgetting the Son whose birthday was Christmas, made him an unqualified celebrant of the occasion. 

If you want to chill and have fun, go ahead and do it, but don’t think you are celebrating Christmas.  Critics of Christmas should not use the likes of Anane and his friends to measure the value of the season.

Significance

If you participate in the celebration of the nine lessons and carols, you cannot miss the Nativity story that points to the birth of Christ and its significance.

That, of course, is Christmas.  Only that, true Christmas is carried in the heart, not in activities.  

Therefore, artefacts of the Yuletide such as the virgin birth of Christ, the nine lessons, the carols and memories of the Son of God must reflect our faith in Him.

Is Christmas about rice and chicken?  Many people eat that throughout the year.  Is it about going to the beach and holidaying?  We do that on other occasions. 

Is it about going to church and participating in religious festivities?  We do that every week.

What makes the difference with Christmas is remembering why Christ was born and given the name “Jesus,” which means to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

We say there is no smoke without fire; if so, what is the use of delighting in mere smoke without fire?  If Christmas is about Christ, why celebrate the occasion without him? 

Therefore, any celebration in the name of Christmas that doesn’t take His mission into account is only observing the smoke and neglecting the fire!

Even the killing of children as a result of his birth by wicked King Herod should tell us that Christmas is not all exciting entertainment but a serious event that points to a future King.

In a poem I wrote some time ago on this subject, I used metaphors and symbolism to reveal that the baby’s manger was a disguised casket!  I even personified that the Wisemen, the shepherds who watched their flock by night and his parents were all mourners yet to come!

Those who watched the baby that dawn must have thought they saw a halo over his head as artists paint for us, but that was the thorn crown that would pierce his head and cause bleeding.

He was a dead man at birth, bearing sorrows in a broken heart.  That was why, a long time before his birth, the Prophet Isaiah referred to him as “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).

That solemn poem states that we feast at his internment which we erroneously call outdooring at Yuletide, singing dirges mistaken for carols. 

When the baby cried that dawn among the bleating sheep, that cry would link to his committed followers who would suffer persecution on account of him.

Right perspective

These sombre thoughts, deeply ingrained in our psyche, give us the right perspective of Christmas.  

When we describe Christmas as “merry” and enjoy the goodies that come with it, we can easily forget the love that surrounded the birth of

Christ which also points to a painful sacrifice unparalleled in history.

If our celebration of the birth of Christ with all its significance includes spending time and resources with the needy, the sick, orphans and widows, that is Christmas.  

For the Lord himself said that if we do this, we do it for him. 

Thinking only about ourselves does not qualify us as true worshippers. We need to be like the wise men who gave gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby.

If you visit your old folks in the village at Christmas, cook for them, cut their overgrown finger and toenails, tell them the Christmas story, pray with them and give them much-needed presents, that is Christmas.

One Christmas season, a church group and some individuals went to the prison and spent time with the inmates.They sang with them, danced, told and dramatised the Christmas story and generally made the inmates feel happy and hopeful.  

That, indeed, was Christmas.  For true Christmas means God is with us; therefore, we can also spend time with the vulnerable.

The writer is a publisher, author, writer-trainer and CEO of Step Publishers.
E-mail: lawrence.darmani@gmail.com