Friends, do you celebrate the birthday of your dead relatives? How about those who have left for distant lands? What about the birth of our heroes? Hindi, diba? Instead, we try to remember and commemorate the day of their death or when they left us.
You see I have always wondered why Jesus is not the focus of most Christmas celebrations. In fact, hindi nga sya ang pinakasikat na tao during this time, kung hindi si Santa Claus. And because si Santa ang bida sa panahon na ito, people have made it a season of eating and giving. People eat a lot because they think it is a time and a way to be merry. So they stuff themselves up but later worry about how to get rid of all the excess weight they have gained. Also, people spend a fortune buying and giving gifts because this is what Santa represents. Then after Christmas, they worry about their finances and with what to do with all the gifts they received that they do not like. Because of this, I feel Christmas has become one of the most stressful and burdensome time of the year.
But is this really the way Jesus wants us to remember Him? Diba the Bible says He came to give us rest and abundance? So why do we end up fat and poor after His birthday? Why is it that we don't celebrate it according to His ways? I guess the reason is, many of us believe He is not here with us, and will only return in the distant future. It is hard to celebrate when someone who is not here, diba? But is this really the case?
Many of us miss out on a very important fact about His birth. In Matthew 1:23, the angel said that He will be called Immanuel, to always remind us that "God is with us"! If this is so, then why did He leave us? And why has He taken so long to return?
Don't you realize that after Jesus told us to make disciples in Matthew 28:20 He said, "...and lo, I will be with you always, until the end of the age." In this statement, He reaffirmed the promise the angels gave when He was born! So while Jesus may someday return physically, He never really left us in Spirit.
So let us not celebrate Christmas with Santa Claus because he will just make us fat and poor. Instead, let us celebrate Christmas with Jesus knowing that He came to give us rest, peace and abundance.
