The "Holiday Season" is now upon us. People are busy preparing for parties, shopping, meals, friends, family, and the list goes on. This is the busiest time of the year.
It's also the time when people spend the most money and go the deepest into debt. It's also, for many, the most depressing time of the year.
My daughter told me that this year some stores decided to get an early start on Black Friday by opening on Thanksgiving for pre-Black Friday sales. This, she said, was in very bad taste, making buying "stuff" more important than family time, impacting consumers and workers alike. It's bad enough that workers need to get up in the wee hours of the day to prepare for the madness of Friday with doors opening at 4 and 5 in the morning. This year they had to leave the festivities of Thanksgiving early in order to meet the demands of the stock market and the consumers who are blindly playing the game. Choosing family over work, may have cost an employee his or her job. For some the extra pay was worth it; for others, not so much.
For years I've waited for someone to shout the truth from the rooftops. But it hasn't happened yet. St. Nicholas really did exist. Not as the Santa Clause that everyone sees in American culture. But as a generous man who spent his inheritance on helping those in need. So there is some truth in celebrating St. Nicholas.
The truth that I'm waiting to be proclaimed is that Jesus was NOT born on December 25th! In fact, no one knows what day He was born. There is plenty of speculation, but nothing concrete. Suppose God intended it to be that way because He knew that humans would do what humans are doing, i.e. putting the celebration in an exulted place above the Son? Suppose it was part of the grand design of things that we shouldn't know the date of our Savior's birth? Have we unknowingly created a golden calf in our over-the-top Christmas, or Holiday Celebrations?
In the last day or so I read about the war between Christmas and Holiday celebrations. "Christmas" is being replaced by "Holiday" in the general lexicon. The term "Holiday" is seen as more inclusive. Many Christians are up in arms because they feel that particular term waters down the reason for the season.
That's when I wonder, do they not know that early Christians did not celebrate Christ's birth? I doubt if the Lord minds a little celebrating, but I believe that this season has gotten extremely far away from what it was intended to be. Although looking at some alleged roots of the celebration, maybe it's really just turning back into what it was before Jesus was thrown into the mix.
Regardless, I believe for those of us who are truly committed to following the way of Christ Jesus, it would benefit us to spend some time in serious prayer asking for guidance on how or if we should keep the holiday. Certainly if it causes a stumbling block, it may be better to spend time searching the heart of the Lord instead of searching for the perfect Christmas gifts.