Mind of a Christian

Christmas

When scrolling through Instagram, and I came across an Australian imam who said the following on film: "A person believes in Christmas, he goes to Gehenna for eternity". What worries me the worst is that this will be a rather successful fear-mongering tactic that will drive people away from Christ during a time that celebrates Christ.

There's also an amount of believers of Christ who don't celebrate Christmas, because of the pagan origins with Roman sun-worship. And there's my camp, who find it improbable that Jesus was actually born on Christmas day, but more so during the spring-summer seasons. I'm not saying that any of these points are wrong, but a small bunch of genuine believers would make a big fuss over it with other genuine believers, and there you have it - internal strife.

And of course, there's the commercializing of Christmas, especially in east coast US. When people think of Christmas, Santa Claus and holiday sales come into mind. The Christ-exalting to non-Christ-exalting Christmas song ratio is pretty low. There's incredibly little space for Christ.

Oh boy. There's a lot of rubbing-against-the-grain during this time.

But should we not come together in unity to celebrate the incredible, unfailing love of God for us through the coming of Jesus? Isn't that what the meaning of advent is all about: the coming of Jesus, the persistence of God for the best of us, which is eternal life in Him?

I became an atheist 6 years ago at this one particular church. Recently, I've visited this church again, now as a true believer, and heard a beautiful sermon on why Christmas is beautiful. Here's a few things:

Christmas is beautiful because the birth of Jesus really did happen. We are not forsaken in eternal hopelessness, locked into our destination facing God's wrath. Instead, 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. Jesus did come to Earth to serve us in the most ultimate way - by giving His life as a ransom for many.

He would not have died if He wasn't born in the first place.

Christmas is beautiful because of the nature of Jesus' birth. He wasn't born in a palace and be cared for by royal attendants. He was born of a poor family (Luke 2:24 referencing Leviticus 12:8) and spent His first infant days in a room meant for animals (Luke 2:7). We can see that even at the very beginning of His life, Jesus made Himself available to everyone. Both scholarly elites (Magis) and the common shepherds visited and glorified God in Jesus.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for we are all one in Christ Jesus.

Let's go back to the word advent. I read a beautiful snippet from John Piper's book The Dawning of Indestructible Joy. It goes like this:

The coming of Jesus was a search-and-save mission. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

So Advent is a season for thinking about the mission of God to seek and to save lost people from the wrath to come. God raised him from the dead, "Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:10). It's a season for cherishing and worshiping this characteristic of God—that he is a searching and saving God, that he is a God on a mission, that he is not aloof or passive or indecisive. He is never in the maintenance mode, coasting or drifting. He is sending, pursuing, searching, saving. That's the meaning of Advent (Piper).

We have a God who's every action towards us is that of care and love. Nothing is offhand, or dismissive. His discipline can be hard hitting, His moments of quietness can make us feel anxious and longing, but everything He does is done with meticulous care for us. And, we can celebrate this as we celebrate the birth of Jesus :)

Recently, I've began to see more and more how God works through my life. Little by little, with great love and encouragement, He has shown me how I am no longer the hostile, spiritually dead, mess of a person that I was in high school. He has shown me that He is by my side in every step I take, fighting my fights against the evil one, and building up my character. Even as I stumble and struggle with sin and very real shortcomings yesterday, today, and tomorrow, He has reminded me that I am His child, forever secured in His family, and I am loved. And now, He is equipping me to share this love to others.

None of this would be real if Jesus had not been born. His birth, life, death, and resurrection is what brings me life. This is my celebration of Christmas.

I'm writing and publishing this a few days early. I'll probably be off Wattpad for a little bit, to spend time with my family. I wish a very blessed Christmas for all of you. Our God and Savior is never far away :)

Works Cited

Piper, John. The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent. Crossway, 2014.