Monday, December 24, 2007

How the Grinch Steals Christmas


It is becoming more and more difficult to define the reason for the season. So many have taken the Christ out of Christmas and have made it into something far less.

Not everyone is making it commercialized chaos. Some are taking another route that is cheaper, but possibly even more dangerous because it is good, moral, and sentimental.

Many are going the way of the Grinch.

I love the movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” but let’s face it by the end of the movie the Grinch still doesn’t get Christmas. He understands the need for relationships and the value of community, but Christmas? I don’t think so.

It’s like a Christmas card we received this month. It had the picture of a dear friend’s new born child and the caption underneath it said “our reason for the season.”

I do not mean to undermine the importance of family. I love family and it is a core Biblical value. But family is not the reason for the season. Kindness, compassion, and community involvement are not the reason for the season.

Christmas is a celebration of God becoming flesh in order to redeem man from sin by dying as the atonement for the sin of those who believe in Him. It’s great that families can get together and people are more charitable and considerate, but the fact of the matter is that unless the Christmas loving Ebeneezer Scrooges of the world repent of their sin and submit their lives to Christ as Savior and Lord they face a dark dismal Godless future.

So enjoy time with friends and family and be nice to strangers – things Christians are to do everyday. But celebrate Christmas as the reminder of the fact that God made His dwelling among us and became man by being born of the Virgin Mary in a stable in a small town in Israel. Remember that this miraculous birth lead to a sacrificial death and out of awe and wonder worship the One who has won the victory over sin and death – Jesus the Christ.

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