DON’T TAKE DOWN YOUR “CHRIST”MAS LIGHTS!

Isaiah 60:1-3: “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.”

OBSERVATION: I love Christmas! I love the lights, the celebrations, the decorations, and the joyful music that we celebrate each year. Yet, I am reminded that it is “CHRIST”mas. Christmas without “CHRIST” is simply a “Mas”!

One of the traditions that I have in my celebration of Christmas is watching all of the sappy Christmas movies I can during the season. I tape as many as I can and love to watch all the stories of Christmas love and joy. Yet, I have been noticing something that is taking place at an alarming rate in the movies that I watch. They are becoming just a sappy “Mas” – totally sanitized of any mention of Jesus birth, or any celebration of “Christ”. Gone are the church services, gone are the manger scenes. All we have left are trees, lights, candy canes, presents, and Santa Claus.

Now, I am not one of those Bible thumpers who doesn’t like Santa Claus. Me and the bearded guy have had quite a long term relationship 🙂 Yet, Christmas is not called Santamas. If it wasn’t for Jesus – the jolly big guy would never have gotten his gig. Today we even feel forced to make our seasonal greetings politically correct. Companies remove “Christmas” and replace it with “Holidays”. Our culture is afraid to mention the name of Jesus Christ. We don’t want to offend anyone now do we? But we can freely mention any other religion’s or atheist’s holiday or celebration. What has gone wrong?

The coming of Christ was the coming of light into a darkened world. John writes – “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭4-5‬ NKJV) The world does not understand this light. They are afraid of true light. They try to remove or overcome the light. Yet, they cannot overcome it! Jesus is the one true light, the light of life, the only light that can lead us to the Father!

John continues to write – “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭9-13‬ NKJV)

As Christians we are called to let our light shine! The eternal destiny of those we love is at stake. This Christmas let’s not hide our light under a bushel. Let’s buck the politically correct crowd. Let’s proudly and boldly proclaim “Merry CHRISTmas” to those we greet. Let’s let the love of God extend His light to those we encounter, now in this season, and throughout the year. While we may want our neighbors to take their lights down after New Years 🙂 – LET’S KEEP THE LIGHT OF CHRIST BURNING IN OUR LIVES ALL YEAR LONG! In Jesus Name!