In 1951 Meredith Wilson wrote a Christmas classic that was recorded and made popular by Bing Crosby. The song: “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” Though I love the season of Christmas, let’s be honest: It has been looking a lot like Christmas since October 15!
During October, many merchants started to display Christmas trees and their many decorations. In one store I patronized Christmas carols were playing softly in the background to wake people up to the fact they needed to do their shopping early. Without question, Christmas has become highly commercialized. Stores offer various incentives and sales in hope that people will shop locally and not online. Our daughter made her first “Black Friday” purchase when the store opened at 8:00 P.M. on Thanksgiving night.
I clearly understand that some people want to buy their child their favorite toy; and will even stand in line for hours to purchase it. I also understand that purchases need to be made weeks in advance to pay for them in the next billing cycle of Visa™ and Mastercard™. But, hasn’t all the desire to purchase the perfect gift for that special someone caused so many to forget the meaning of Christmas?
As has been said so many times, “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” Christmas exists as a special day to acknowledge and remember the birth of Christ the Lord. The special day is to remind us that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh: He is God Incarnate. Without Jesus, it would be as so many blindly proclaim that it is the season of ‘winter solstice,’ or a celebration around the ‘holiday tree.’
Sadly, Christmas has become so many things other than what it truly is. Christmas, too often, has become a time of selfish wants and desires, frustration and stress, and trying to please one another with a unique and perfect gift. But, in truth, the gifts we often receive become broken, lost, stolen, returned and exchanged for something we like better, or they become items for the next ‘garage sale’.
I pray that we will lay aside all the trapping of Christmas, and truly recognize what Christmas is all about. Let us focus our attention on Christ Jesus and worship Him who came to give us His all, and to recognize that the only gift worth giving is the gift God gave to each of us: The Baby in a cradle that grew to become the Christ of Calvary. Let us never forget the true meaning of Christ: Jesus Christ.
– Pastor Jerry L. Dunn, Oak Street Baptist Church
