Happy Holidays ya'll

“And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.’” Revelation 21:3

We are at it again. It is November 6 and Christmas decorations are popping out everywhere. I haven’t even finished the bite-size leftover chocolates from Halloween. Don’t take me for a Grinch, I adore Christmas. There is so much magic, joy, music and family all compressed into a Holy Evening and Everybody Up Early Morning.

It is not the advertisements that bother me, nor the tinsel and lights that barely give the Thanksgiving turkey time to breathe. Business will always be business and it does little good to chant the same rant each year. I am weary of the weapons of words that begin each year during this season. How did we every get to the place where we fought over using “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.”?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the emotion. I adore Christ. I loved Him even before I became a follower. But, once I truly understood the implication of God coming among dressed in the same flesh I wear, I have never been the same. Merry Christ-mas indeed! But we deny the very meaning of the beautiful season when we go to war with people who may use different expressions.

Not only that, have we never thought what it might mean to be a Jew growing up always hearing “Merry Christmas”? For my friends who do not believe Jesus is the Messiah, I apologize for our crassness, and thank you for the compromise of “Happy Holidays”. Not to mention Muslim friends, Jehovah’s Witnesses, atheists, and the occasional Scrooges. Guess what, I am not going to be the one to tell you to use my language when you talk about your life.

God is going to do what He wants no matter what we call December 25. The last book of the New Testament tells us that God wants to be here. At the end of this world He will set up shop right around the corner, just a stone’s throw from every citizen of the New Heaven and New Earth. No matter our response, God’s desire is always to be among us.

When Jesus was born something happened that changed the world forever. In ways that I still barely understand, God robed Himself in the life of Jesus, born as a baby in relative obscurity. God wanted to identify with us so much that He refused to enter this world from a position of advantage. And, by the way, He left it, according to His own plan, in pain and humiliation. All of that was because He loves every human on the planet.

I wonder if that is what we communicate with all our folderol about “Happy Holidays” and replacing the “X” in “Xmas”. OF course, many people fail to realize the “x” is a mere abbreviation of “Christ”; “X” being the first letter of Christ in Greek. It has nothing to do with “x’ing” something out! We miss the point so much that people are turned off to the very thing we want them to understand.

Imagine Father God at Christmas time, looking down upon the world when we celebrate Jesus’ birth. The God who longs to “dwell among us” did exactly that in the baby born in Bethlehem (probably in the spring sometime, after all, not in the winter). Do we really think He is sniping about worlds like “Happy” or abbreviations with an “X”?

Imagine Christ-in-You, if you are a follower. What is His desire when you see someone who doesn’t “get” the “reason” for the season? My guess is He desire, with everything in Him, to draw that person, hug them close, and remind them that this celebration is the afterglow of the biggest birthday party the world has ever known! If the afterglow is this much fun, and so magically happy, can you imagine the joy of celebrating the truth?

So, instead of little wrinkle around my nose from cringing, I think you’ll see the crack of a smile at the corners of my mouth. I’m going to enjoy “Happy Holidays” because it reminds me God started this whole thing. While I was snubbing my nose at Him, He put on the same skin I wear and, hidden in the straw, disguised in poverty, He drew me close because His desire has never changed. Whether it is the beginning in Bethlehem, or the end of Revelation, God has always desired to live among us.