Christmas Day is Here!

I have spent the last couple of weeks crabbing about my lack of Christmas Spirit and the over commercialization of the Christmas Holiday.

Today is the Day; the reason for the Season.

Merry Christmas!

Christians all over the world look forward to today. A birth forecast by the prophets for a thousand years; the arrival on Earth of God and the beginning of a new period of revival. A gift promised to the Jewish people, the birth of Christ did little for them, and instead created an entirely new religion that has spread and splintered into dozens of sects around the globe and 2.1 billion followers; the largest religion in the modern world, with 33% of the world's inhabitants as followers.

Hard to believe it all began with the birth of a small child in a stable on this day 2,012 years ago.

Well; there are questions, both about the actual date and the year. Some even doubt the birth itself.

Considering how easily information gets confused in just a few short years, I would think it would be easy to lose track of an exact date that happened, in our case, over 2000 years ago.

The creation of a Liturgical Holy Day to coincide with an existing pagan holiday is logical as well. After all even today the Queen of England has both an actual birthday and an Official Birthday.

None of which should detract from the Celebration itself; we are celebrating the Birth of Christ; not Christ's Birthday.

That may seem like a semantic difference, but its not. We aren't concerned so much with when Christ was born as much as we are concerned that he was born at all.

Think about the concept; especially 2000 years ago. Gods demanded tribute and worship; gods were vindictive and destructive when they were not properly honored.

But here was a God that loved the people who worshiped Him to the point that he would send His Son- His only Son- to live on Earth with us; to suffer for our sins and to suffer the ultimate punishment for us; to die in our stead.

We aren't celebrating the day He came to Earth, but the concept that He did.

And that, my friends, is quite a concept.