Pointing to Christ this Christmas

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

“I refuse to buy into the latest toy craze this Christmas.  I’m tired of it.  We buy those prized toys, only to see them on a table at next year’s yard sale.”  This was my very wise and dearest friend Indira expressing her frustration with Christmas shopping and the craziness that some parents go into when it comes to buying the ultimate toy for their kids every year.  I really admire Indira.  She has been able to stick to her “one-big-present-only-policy” year after year.  Her children get one big present and the rest are smaller things that the rest of the family and friends give them.  Not me.  I spend way too much.  And, although we don’t sale anything because my boys are pack-rats with attachment disorders; I can see last year’s toys from where I’m sitting, inside a plastic bin, covered with a deep layer of dust.  Nobody has played with those things since I don’t remember when.  What a waste.  I’ve dug myself into a Christmas hole without much hope for escape.

It pains me, but I am not going to endlessly rant about the over-commercialization of Christmas or the secularization of one of the holiest of celebrations.  I’m just not surprised by the reality of Christmas in our society.  After all, that’s exactly how people who belong to the world are to be expected to behave, guided by their prince of darkness who is still exercising the season of dominion that God has allowed him. 

The secular world has appropriated Christmas for itself; creating its own religious icons, for secularism is a religion in case you hadn’t thought of it that way.  Secularism is the religion that follows the dogma of anti-religion; where the worship of self and other fabrications is practiced daily.  Secularism has vacated any traced of Christianity out of holy days of profound significance in our faith.  Secularism has taken Christ out of the foundations of Christianity such as Christmas and Easter.  The two holy days without which there would be no Christian faith have been depleted of their meaning by erasing their protagonist.  This is our reality.  However, we don’t have to practice it or live as one of secularism’s many followers.  We are called to be different, - in the world but not of the world -.  We are in the middle of the Advent days.  Perhaps this is the precise moment to make a stand against secularism in our own personal way. 

That doesn’t mean, however, that I won’t buy presents for my boys this year.  But I can make each present meaningful.  I can make each present point to Christ. 

I can add Christianity into my Christmas tree by hanging ornaments that point to Christ. 

I can read the story of Christmas out of the primary source.  I can make the story speak for itself and point to Christ. 

I can insist that Grant reads the Bible verse that is on each of the links of the Christmas chain that he made at school.  It is such a blessing to hear him reading the Word of God out of his own Bible and in his very own sweet voice.  I can let my son point Christ to me that way. 

I can use the Nativity to make the story of Christmas come alive for Dylan.  I can let him play with the characters and create his own story in his imagination, where the Wise Kings become warriors and the shepherds turn into soldiers who guard the precious Holy family at the gates of Bethlehem.  I can let the Nativity point to Christ. 

Little things help us keep the story fresh and alive in our hearts.  Little things can help us point to Christ.  Little things remind us that Christmas is not a license to indulge in all things material just because we deserve it and we’ve been “good.”  Christmas is about our Savior’s birth and in all we do, like the star that the Wise Men followed, we must be intentional about pointing to Him for all to know and for all to see, even in the midst of our secularized society and world. 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and^[c] will call him Immanuel.  Isaiah 7:14