A Partrige in a Pear Tree!

"Christ was not, in all likelihood, born anywhere near December 25th."
   "Christmas was introduced to cover up the pagan holiday of Saturnalia which the Romans celebrated at that time."
        "People get so excited about what they're going to get, it just becomes a time of selfish thoughts and 'me' glorification!"
            
    These and many more are all reasons people give for why Christians shouldn't celebrate Christmas. Having been exposed to a lot of legalism and ungracious Christians in my short life, I have heard many arguments; some reasonable, some strong, some lame and some which are simply absurd!
   I once heard someone, whom I still greatly respect, say that when a child bends down in front of the tree to pick up a present, he is bowing down before the tree and that is a form of idolatry.
  Someone else went still further to suggest that by putting up trees and greenery in and around our houses, we were in sin insomuch as we were reviving the Roman worship of Saturn which involved the decoration of homes with that same colored foliage.  The ideas get so creative that I sometimes wonder what people mean to accomplish by such statements and would rather they just out and say: "I don't celebrate Christmas because I do not think it glorifies Christ!"   Because when all is said and done, this is the ultimate measure by which, I hope, believers decide to celebrate this controversial holiday or not.
    When I think of how much our Lord must have loved us to be willing to come down and live in submission to His own creation and then take our filth on Himself to the extent that His own father would crush Him with pleasure, so that we should receive a gift that we in no measure deserve, then I wonder how we can possibly be so callous as to bicker with our fellow redeemed over whether a holiday which commemorates His incarnation should be celebrated because of its roots and possible connotations!  -   Put it however we may, there is no reason that one cannot celebrate Christmas today in a completely God honoring fashion.  It is easy enough to toss out all the bad parts and leave the good and lovely ones.
    Then I would ask, why not celebrate Christmas?
Some would say that the proper question for believers who love their Lord, would be "Why would we celebrate it?"
    A very good question!
       
       1. It helps you get out of yourself.  
    Many people think that Christmas is a self-centered holiday when everyone is thinking about what he wants except for the frantic parent running around trying to find a gift that his child will like.  I think this is only if  the focus is in the wrong place.  In our family, everyone gets a gift for everyone else, so nobody really has time to add to his wish list, he's to busy thinking about what to get for everyone else! And for children who are naturally more self absorbed this is an excellent exercise, not only in learning to sacrifice oneself,(so that we don't grow up a bunch of miserly Scrooges!) but to think of others, ie. making sure the gift is something the recipient wants not the giver!
      2.  Christmas music is so lovely!
 I had to put that in!
      3. The Christmas tree and all the decorations look, and smell, so lovely!
 Our heavenly Father made all these things, why should we refrain from celebrating the incarnation with them just because the Romans used them to worship Saturn?  -  Though such a custom may have been offensive, in the time of the Roman empire, to Christians. Such is certainly not the case now!
      4. Christmas lights are so beautiful!
This one speaks for itself. Just go for a drive through the city at this most wonderful time of the year; you'll see what I mean!
     5. It is so much fun to give gifts!
If you don't agree with this one, then either you haven't given enough gifts or they've been something the recipients didn't want!
     6. Christmas brightens up Winter when it is so nasty to descend upon you with out any snow!
  White Christmases are nice but you appreciate the holiday so much more when you live in the south and don't get the snow as recompense for  the cold!
     7.  I am certain that The Lord Jesus Himself is pleased when we celebrate Christmas among our families with Love and joy in our hearts towards everyone!

     There!  -  Now, I doubt you can contend with me!

   Finally, anyone who has followed my blog for any significant length of time, knows that this is the first day of my annual "Twelve days of Christmas" series for this year, (even though the titles are going to be a little different this year!) and that I am supposed to share a Christmas song with you all.

   So today I am going to share with you two songs! Just in case you haven't seen the one I posted on Google+ a few days ago, I'll show that one, and just in case you have seen it; I'll post another so you aren't disappointed!

  So here is the first one which is terribly funny!
  And here is another one which I enjoy and consider a very Jolly song - Deck The Halls!
I will do better next time, 
                                                   but for now,
                                                                                 'tis the season to be jolly!