Our Christmas Celebration

Life is full of opportunities for celebration.  When those opportunities present themselves to us, we must treasure them, enjoy them, maximize them, and get the best out of them.  We should not let those opportunities pass us by, as some may occur once in a lifetime although we wish they were more frequent, more repetitive in our lives.

The following are some instances of joyful celebrations recorded in the Bible:

1.  When the men were returning home after David killed Goliath, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. (1 Samuel 18:6).
2. When the ark of the covenant of the LORD was being brought from the house of Obed-Edom to the place prepared for it by David, David danced, rejoiced and celebrated so passionately that his very close relative (his wife) could not grasp or understand the state of his jubilant heart towards God, nor the reason for his exuberance and for his happiness. (1 Chronicles 15:1-29).
3. After Queen Esther aborted Haman’s plot and saved the Jews, and after Mordecai’s orders were written in the name of King Xerxes and sent out to all the Jews, “the city of Susa held a joyful celebration.  For the Jews, it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor.  In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating” (Esther 8:15-17).

Celebration, therefore, is the expression and the release of joy, the open manifestation of happiness on a large scale other than just on the inside.  It is the joyful shout, the burst of thanksgiving, the seal of achievement, the feast of a milestone, the sharing of jubilation, the birth of a baby, the first cry of a newborn, the assurance of the presence of peace, the confirmation of the removal of and of the clearance from danger, the commemoration of accomplishment, of achievement, of events, of historic dates, the festivities of victory.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38; Luke 2:1-21).  The world is joyfully filled with happiness.  People from all walks of life and people of all creeds embark automatically, joyfully and willfully in this spectacular celebration.  It is beautiful, it is exciting.  The world goes through all kinds of preparation for the celebration with lights everywhere, corporate parties, company dinners, individual and family festivities.  They cannot help it or control the frantic excitement in their activities and in their lives.  The KING is coming!  The KING is coming! The rush is on in people’s hearts, in society and in the whole world.  People feel the compelling need to please, to give, to share, to bless others, to treat themselves, their families and their household.  We are all celebrating The King, King Jesus, The Savior of the world who took on human form in order to resolve the issue of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden due to man’s disobedience of God’s command (Genesis 3/whole Chapter). And only Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, had the ability, the power and the mandate to restore, to prevent, to avoid, to cancel and to save mankind from eternal damnation, and from our ongoing and subsequent sins.

The birth of Jesus Christ that we celebrate at Christmas is so important and so significant that our current calendar is arranged around it.  It is a major and a catalytic event in the world history.  It is no longer “BC” (Before Christ).  Now it is “AD” (Anno Domini meaning “In the year of the Lord” or “In the year of our Lord”).  We now live in the “AD” epoch, the epoch of counting years after the conception or the birth (or the coming) of Jesus of Nazareth to this world that we are celebrating at Christmas.  And this is in a nutshell and in a condensed state the essence of the meaning of Christmas.  We are now part of something big, concrete and tangible, globally accepted and approved, universally recognized, studied, researched, proven and factual.  It is official, it is sealed.

Born in the most simplistic humility, in a very meager state and in the inadequate setting of a stable (of a manger) in Bethlehem that is totally unsuitable and unfit for a King, baby Jesus was however the Real Deal, the Big and Great King on a mission.  He came down to Earth to save, to elevate, to uplift, to set humanity on the right path again, and to make sure that humanity is suitable and ready to inherit “everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Jesus Christ is life, life in this world, life of this world, life eternal.  Christmas is the celebration of the advent of life eternal.  Christmas is also the celebration of the introductory preparation of our living eternally with Jesus Christ as we invite Him and as we receive Him into our hearts and in our lives.  Christmas is totally about Jesus Christ, the Light of the world who came to dispel darkness and to instill “spiritual” light in all living humans and in mankind.  This is another reason why the Christmas festivities are also celebrated with multicolor lights and with lighting decorations everywhere. 

People are so joyful, so happy, so motivated, so excited that they become extremely creative in terms of lighting designs and decorations.  People are so creatively innovative that their creativity mesmerizes our imagination, forces us and compels us to admire those heavenly designs and those works of art with the intention of enjoying them and of cherishing them forever: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10).  It is absolutely beautiful and our mind is captivated and is in awe bringing the essence of childlike fascination out of all of us.  Words alone cannot truly express in full details the magnificence, the whole meaning and the immense significance of the birth of Jesus Christ celebrated at Christmas.

Jesus Christ is awe, captivating beauty, Love personified, incarnated and eternal, The King.  Jesus Christ is so fascinating and so spectacular that it took a special star, brighter than all the other stars in the sky in the holy night of His birth, to guide the wise men (or Magi) who came from the east to Jerusalem (Luke 2:1) to the  place where He was born (Luke 2:9, 10).  In their individual wisdom received from God, the wise men brought the “absolute best” they had to offer to Baby Jesus because they knew that they were coming “specifically to worship” the newborn King.  Therefore, respectively, they brought gold, frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11).

The very best and the most precious gift that we (our generation) have to offer to Jesus Christ today for “our worship of Him” is our “predisposed hearts”.  Let us adore Him by offering our “absolute best” to Him so that He may be pleased with our choice of gift being offered to Him for His inhabitation and His indwelling.  Let us invite Him and offer our warm welcome of Him into our hearts and into our lives.  Let us celebrate Jesus Christ, not like spectators, or outsiders, or strangers, or bystanders, but like full-fledged and fully-engaged participants.  Let us embrace Him and take our rightful place in the celebration of Christmas with our willingness to be one with Him, with our aspiration and our decision to accept Him as our Savior and our King, with our desire to overcome and to dispel darkness in our lives and in the world.  Let us confirm and consolidate our connection to something very big and very special, His Kingdom, to someone larger than life, the Creator and the Generator of life Himself.  Let us affirm and confirm our total surrendering and our unconditional belonging to Him.  Let us accept Him and be "genuinely" on His side that is absolutely safe and secure.  Let us rejoice with one another and share mutually that special love that bridges all gaps, that unites all men, that unifies all souls, that strengthens the weak and the needy, that sustains life.

We wish you celebrate the Magnificent Birth and the Life of Jesus Christ either in full simplicity, in total serenity, in absolute modesty, or according to your means, your budget and the prompting of your hearts.  After all, it is Our Celebration of the Birth of Our King and Savior.  Therefore, the simplicity, or the modesty, or the pomp, or the glamour of your (our) celebration and of your "wise" choice is individually, personally and absolutely yours.  Rejoice and Enjoy!

We wish you a Merry Christmas in Love, Joy and Peace.
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Special Notes:

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