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Is Christ In Your Christmas?
By mstrohm | December 15, 2008
During this Christmas season I have listened to many disgruntled conservative Christians talk about how the media and retail industry are systematically removing Christ from Christmas. “Merry Christmas” no longer is spoken or printed they complain. I experienced this truth just yesterday when I was buying books at a Goodwill where the cashier greeted the customer ahead of me with a “happy holidays.”
“You mean ‘Merry Christmas’” the women in front of me stated.
“I know” the cashier replied “but I am required to be politically correct here” she finished.
OK, so those around us, most of whom do not have a personal relationship with Christ, have indeed removed Christ from Christmas. While that upsets me I am far more concerned by the many professing Christians who seem to have kept the phrase “Merry Christmas” but who have also systematically removed Christ from Christmas.
When my children were young they could practically quote Luke 2
and the Christmas story. “We get it at school, church and home!” they would offer as explanation for knowing it so well. However, I work with predominantly Christian families and can report to you that many of these children do not know the story well. They know all manner of Christmas stories, typically from TV movies, but not the original story!
Families have struggled with keeping perspective at Christmas time for many years. I would guess this struggle has increased as many Churches have replaced teaching Biblical stories with simple Scriptural applications. Add a public that no longer even uses the phrase “Christmas” and has eliminated songs, as well as videos and shows on the true Christmas story and you get Christian families having to carry the entire load of passing on the real meaning of Christmas.
Parents, let me encourage you to make room for Christ this Christmas. Use traditional tools such as Advent wreaths, read the Biblical account and above all take time to pass on the wonderful miracle of a loving God who chose to send His only Son to a lost and needy people!
Merry Christmas!
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