You'll Have to Decide

My wife says I haven’t written in my personal blog since Thanksgiving.  My, has the time gone by that quickly?  It’s Christmas already??  It seems the calendar just (as my sister says) “whings” by.  With all of the goings-on a the church the past month, it’s been difficult to even think of writing a personal blog, let alone actually doing it.

I looked back on this blog to the beginning.  The first post was in the first part of December, 2005.  That’s eleven years.   And that year, Christmas Day was on a Sunday, just as it is this year.  Much has changed in the last eleven years, and much has stayed the same.  We’ve all aged, of course.  Hopefully, we’ve all also grown a bit wiser, and have settled into a general peace with where we are and who we are.

Christmas is an enigma among enigmas.  Life itself seems to be an enigma.  And Christmas is one of those days that means so much to so many; yet there are so many different takes on the holiday that it boggles the mind.

Some take trips to Mexico, the Florida Keys, Tahiti, or some other exotic place for the holidays.  Some go on trips, but to less exotic places.  They go to Grandma’s home, or go visit the kids.  Maybe they make a once-in-a-few-years trip to Aunt Martha’s.  Or they might just go somewhere where they don’t know anyone and enjoy the holiday in a hotel or resort of some kind.

Still others plan to have family and friends over.  They cook, clean, and prepare.  They decorate and round up extra tables, chairs, and other necessities.  They look forward to having the grandkids over, or to having family over to watch football and munch on goodies.  They make candy and cookies of various kinds.

And yet others don’t do much of anything.  They are alone…some by choice…some not.  They don’t buy, give, or receive gifts.  Maybe they don’t have the money.  Maybe they don’t celebrate for religious or other reasons.  Or maybe they don’t have a home to celebrate in.  They may be on the street or in a shelter of some kind.  Or they are in the hospital or long term care center.

And then there are the various ways and means of celebration in other nations and other cultures.  Time and space won’t permit me to go into any detail, but you have to know that there are about as many ways to celebrate this holiday as there are nationalities and cultures in the world today.

So, what do we make of a holiday that by all accounts is one of the most popular holidays in history, but celebrates not some government or national event or person, but rather celebrates, at its core, the birth of a Jewish baby born to dirt-poor parents in a nondescript village in a forgettable part of the world about 2,000 years ago?  Muhammad never has had such a celebration world-wide.  Nor the Buddha, or any of the great men or women of history.   What is it that makes this birth so special?

You’ll have to fill in that answer for yourself; I can’t do that for you.  You’ll have to decide what you’re going to do with Jesus, the one whose birth we celebrate.  He said he was God Incarnate.  His followers said he was bodily resurrected after suffering death by crucifixion.  Secular history records that such a man existed, and that such a man died on a cross.  It hints that he was bodily resurrected.

Was he God incarnate?  Was he a crazy man?  Was he a bald-faced liar?  You’ll have to decide for yourself…somehow, some way.  Today might be a good day to make up your mind.