Christmas.......

Webster defines it like this:

Christmas noun 1. the annual festival of the Christian church commemorating the birth of Jesus: celebrated on December 25 and now generally observed as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts.

Well, pardon me Mr. Webster, but you left out quite a bit in your definition.

Christmas is only the beginning of the celebration of Christ. It is the kick off, so to speak, for the real celebration that is "The Ascension" of Christ Jesus to the Father. That is why we (Christians) celebrate the birth of Christ. Without His birth, the wondrous miracle that it is, we would still be laboring under the Mosaic law.

A party, included in the count down to the New Year celebration that everyone loves so much. That is what most of the world sees as Christmas. Oh, sure the network TV stations still play the Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon. The old movies abound, White Christmas, Miracle on 34Th St, and my personal favorite, It's A Wonderful Life. Doing this they seek to appease the Christians and say, "Look! We know what Christmas is all about!" Wrong. They haven't a clue.

Christ's birth is the first part of the original perfect gift to us. The real gift came later, his sacrifice of his life, the shedding of His blood for the remission of our sins. The culmination of the gift is when Jesus ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit to be with us.

Now, that beloved is a GIFT! I guarantee you are not going to find that under a pre-lit Christmas tree.

In His Service by His Grace,
Kat