Sunday, December 23, 2007

What is this holiday about?

When I was a little girl, there was no question about what this holiday was about. It was purely a Christmas celebration of our Christ Jesus’ birth. Yes, there was folklore about St. Nicholas, a jolly good ol’ man, who gave gifts to all the little children on the eve of Jesus’ birthday in celebration of God’s gift to mankind, Jesus our Savior.

There was another celebration during the season celebrated by the Jews called Hanukkah, but was never publicly celebrated. Only here in recent years have people in the US began to rebel against the long celebrated traditional holiday. I have read about the origins Christmas rooted in paganism and such, but when I was little, none of those ideas celebrated or heard of practically.

We, here in the US, only celebrated Jesus’ birth, Christmas. Many could debate all the many different issues that exist in our diverse country today, but I like to think on what our country was found on, Christianity without persecution from which denomination you were in. Jesus left out of the equation was simply not an issue.

Therefore, I would like to quote our family’s tradition of celebrating this holiday. For the sake of space I will only quote a portion of Luke 2, unto us a child was born:

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his
Favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Lets go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” (Luke 2:13-20 NIV)

Merry Christmas,

Gail Williams & Family