Picture a child walking up to you and looking somewhat perplexed. The
little fellow unsure, whether to ask you the question you can see
lingering on the young lips or not. Then it pops out: “Please is this
the real Christmas, or shall we wait for the other one?” By the other
Christmas the child has in mind the Christmas during which people are
said to talk about Jesus Christ, man’s spiritual salvation, going to
heaven, remembering the good things that Christ taught mankind, etc.
This image of a perplexed child asking about Christmas may seem an
unlikely scenario to many, but it is not. The real message of Christmas
does not exist in what is masquerading under that umbrella everywhere
today. That is why any child or adult for that matter, who sets out to
find the Christmas in these events, celebrations and parties will be
appalled and scandalised. The symbols under which Christmas is now
celebrated, like bags of sweet, silly toys and Father Christmas, have
nothing whatsoever to do with the real thing. There are no genuine
reminders about the meaning of Christianity, no mementoes or artworks of
the birth scene with the Star of Bethlehem shining over it.
Again, let us resort to imagination. Picture that you are a little
child. You have never been to town. It’s just you, the village church
and your grandma. Granny, by the way, has a heart of gold; being a good,
kindly old woman full of sundry stories about Christmas. She once told
you about the three wise men. She also once made such a moving story
about the Star of Bethlehem; the child in the manger, etc. Now that you
have come into civilisation you are looking for the
signs of Christmas. There is none. You will then be caught between
saying outright that your grandma’s tales about it may well have been
fabricated. For good measure, let us consider how most Christians may
have prepared for this Christmas. Shop owners stocked up on plastic
images of Santa Claus of various sizes. This is quite apart from the
completely animated version of Santa, some of them much bigger than a
full grown adult. This wired up Father Christmas can dance to any type
of music, including obscene renditions that will make a true Christian
suspect that Armageddon had sneaked up on him without warning. This
gyrating Santa has become the vogue.
Lest we forget tree lights were purchased by the dozens. Here there is
also the option of buying the regular lights, or the one that sings
Christmas carols. Never mind that it may cost you some effort to confirm
that it is actually the carol you know that is playing in the
irritating whine that comes with the lights. Then the Christmas tree is
all hung up with various shiny things, including an unsorted
combination of alphabets. The mantra that created all this is:
‘Christmas just has to happen’. Nothing must go wrong. The children are
looking forward to it with shining eyes things. Poor, swindled children!
What they are getting is obviously not the Christmas that would offer
them the spiritual benefits of the Sacred Mission of Christ.
Where is Christ, the Redeemer, in all of that we have on display today
in the name of Christmas? We hear of season’s greetings, all right. What
we do not hear is the season we are dealing with. Pray, do ‘seasons’
greetings refer to the harmattan, winter or what? If Christmas is a
season of love, what does this love consist of? When people say that
Christ came to save mankind, what is it He came to save them from? What
did He bring and how are we to know whether we are benefitting from it
or not? Are the majority of Christians focusing on this at the moment?
How many are desperately explaining all these to the children, assuming
they themselves understand it? What did they do to deserve this robbery?
Why should parents do everything within their power to offer children
Christian memorials that are so thoroughly divested of the message of
Christmas? It’s all about picnics, greeting cards, tailors, fashion
houses and new wears, I guess.
On a lighter note, but still on the matter at hand, lean pockets are
under pressure to put up some tolerable performance. Some financially
challenged husbands may well have surprised themselves at their own
creativity, regarding why they did not kill a Christmas goat. Who knows,
some may have decreed temporary vegetarianism for the family; that is
if they did not suddenly announce that they had changed their faith
temporarily – confronting expectant family members with the
declaration: “I am now Muslim”. But back to the substantive issue of
Christmas.
The point of raising the issues about the essence of Christmas is
perhaps Christendom just has to return to the fact that Christ came to
this world to present mankind with the opportunity for eternal life.
This means that His life on earth was all about showing human beings how
to escape live according to the will of God and escaping eternal
damnation. This is salvation from spiritual death that is the second
death from which there can be no awakening. Surely that is not a
prominent component of the Christmas celebration menu right now. If
Christ’s kingdom were of this world, He would have taken on the Romans
who occupied Israel at the time. He said that He had come so that
mankind may have life and have it more abundantly. But do we really
understand this statement? Are even making genuine efforts in that
regard?
The Christmas season is a good time for us to remember that Real Life
exists in God Almighty alone. As Creator and Giver of life, He and He
alone, has the power through which other entities can come into being.
Unlike everything in existence, which depends on Him in order to exist,
God is completely independent. Being totally self-sufficient,
completely autonomous and the only truly Living One, God is Life Itself -
totally incapable of being enriched by what any entity has to offer.
That is why he is the origin of being, or being itself, in the most
strict and proper sense of the term. It is in this sense that we can
thus speak of Him as that which is and which cannot but be; and without
which nothing can be. It is also for this reason that the Almighty is
not a “that”, speaking here in terms of: “Definitio fit per genus
proximum, et differentiam specificam”.
If the fad nowadays is not to let anyone remember the true meaning of
Christmas, especially during the season ostensibly dedicated to it, then
something is dreadfully wrong with the spiritual future of mankind. If
you add this to the fact that today we hear less and less of “Thy Will
be done, o’ Lord” from the believers all through the year you may well
consider the implications for man’s true spirituality. There are demands
instead, and these demands are all about wealth, promotion in the
office, getting a wife and more. Some of the supplicants may well be
tapping their feet impatiently for a quick solution to the problem,
mentally threatening to try another church, or even another deity, if
their desires delays in coming.
Let us reflect on the true meaning of the hymns: how the angel came
among the shepherds and how it was first necessary to calm the shepherds
down, before telling them that: “A Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord” was
born? Why is it that adults who had a different type of Christmas do
not worry that the three wise men rarely feature in Christmas-related
events and stories nowadays? And where is the Star of Bethlehem in all
of this; the same star that used to be talked about with shining eyes?
How come it all now have nothing more than a thriving global business,
about the manufacturing and exporting of seasonal goods, just the way
clothiers stock up for summer or Halloween? How did Santa Claus take
over our Christmas celebrations and whom is he working for? How did he
displace the child in the manger? If our Lord Jesus Christ came to this
world to bring salvation to mankind, then that should be the central
message of Christmas. It is not the central message at the moment. As a
brand, it stands diminished and violated - by those who believe they are
projecting it.
culled from Edifying Elucidations By Okey Ikechukwu. Email, okey.ikechukwu@thisdaylive.com
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