Out of all the holidays,
Christmas is probably the most commercialized and hectic. Decorations galore,
and running up the credit card buying gifts people don’t need. Craziness!
Glorifying Santa and forgetting why it’s called Christmas. Although if you
research the holiday, you will find that it once was a pagan holiday and had
nothing to do with our Saviours birth. In fact Jesus wasn’t even born on
December 25th, but back somewhere along the lines Christians began
to celebrate Jesus birth on that day. Perhaps it was to counter the pagan
celebrations of the time. If that was the case, it’s the same today. The
secular world wants to celebrate a jolly old man who supposedly knows
everything about everybody, while Christians wish to celebrate their Saviour’s
birth; the Saviour who came to die for all mankind and set them free from the
penalty of sin, death.
It seems to be a holiday with the most controversial history
ever, and that has carried on into our day and age as well.
As I said, for most people it’s
all about making wish lists, spending more than what you have, and getting
caught up in all the madness of the season. Even for some Christians it can be
the time of year everyone goes overboard. I am so grateful that it has never
been that way in my family.
How do we keep Christ at the
center and not get caught up in all the hubbub? For us it was probably made
easy by our circumstances, as growing up there wasn’t a lot of that paper stuff
people carry around in their wallets, but I think I also had some wise parents,
and grandparents. I believe it started with my Grandpa Kliever. Yes they put up
a tree and some lights, but Grandma always put the nativity set out in front.
Her care in doing so spoke volumes to me. Then there came Christmas Eve, and
the time we would exchange the few gifts under the tree. But before that
happened, Grandpa would pull out his Bible and read the Christmas story, and
slowly too. He would pray and thank the Lord for sending His Son to die in our
place, and then we would sing Christmas hymns. That tradition carried over into
my family as I grew up. Somehow my parents and grandparents were able to stress
the fact that the gifts weren’t what was important, though they were fun, but
we were to remember the greatest gift of all. Jesus.
As we kids got older, and our
family went through some lean years, making gifts for one another became a fun
way to show each other our love. Some times there were boughten gifts, but
those mostly would consist of things needed like socks! But of the homemade
gifts, things ranged from paper dolls, to drawn pictures or leather or wood
work. But whatever the gifts may be, we knew what we were celebrating, not who
got what or spent the most, but that fact that we had a Saviour who came to
earth to die for us!
Now I have a family of my own.
Our Christmas tree is already up, and I have a few gifts ready to wrap and put
under it, but I want to strive to do what my parents did and my Grandparents,
and teach my children why we celebrate our Saviours birth. Amidst all the
controversy of the season my husband and I feel convicted to celebrate our
Saviours birth and to stress its importance on our children. We have something
wonderful to celebrate and we don’t need the world’s big red man, ‘cause we
have Someone better! And because of all that… Christmas is my favourite time of
year!
S.L. Kliever
