What's the Big Deal about Christmas?

By Charles Scott
The wise sage and noted philosopher Charlie Brown once stated to his faithful sidekick Linus, "I just don't get it. I don't feel any Christmas spirit. What's the big deal about Christmas?"

Christmas is about walking in a winter wonderland, searching for that perfect family Christmas tree, and when that tree is found, spending quality family time together bringing the tree home. Then the family trims the tree and spends those cherished moments putting up lights and decorations for Christmas. It about those special moments of Christmas; those moments that are spent sacrificing personal time, laboring for the sake of the season, risking life and limb so the family can enjoy the festive celebrations of Christmas.

Yes, these are the moments that bring special cheer to every soul at this time of the year. At these times our only thought is on the joy and peace our hard work and effort will bring to others. What's it all about? It's about the special cheer we can spread to everyone during the Christmas holidays. And no matter the effort required, we will work as hard as we must to kindle the Christmas spirit and go to whatever length required just to brighten someone else's Christmas and make their holiday even better.

Christmas is about merry days and beautiful nights. And even if we lose that Christmas spirit once in a while, we plug back in to the hope, peace and love that make Christmas that happy time of the year. For Christmas is a happy time, a time around the table with loved ones, enjoying a festive meal with those we love so dear. Anything else would be a blue, blue, blue Christmas.

Unfortunately, some do have a blue Christmas. Their bells don't jingle, their one horse has no sleigh and their chestnuts won't roast. Have you ever had to deal with the 12 Blues of Christmas? You know what I mean:

One the 12th day of Christmas my blue Christmas gave to me:
12 days of bowl games
11 bad movies
10 strings of lights
9 broken bulbs
8 in-laws visiting
7 kids a screaming
6 broken toys
5 credit cards overdrawn…
4 trips for batteries
3 days in the mall
2 kids out of school and
An empty bottle of Tylenol

What is Christmas all about? It's about an angel's song, a barnyard birth, Christ's arrival and demon's demise. It's about glad tidings to all men, Herod's fear and Immanuel – God with us. It's about joy to the world, kindness to one another and love lifting all. It's about a manger crib, a night's celebration, an omnipotent moment, peace on earth, quickening spirits, reverent occasions and shepherds' bowing. It's about the tabernacle of God on earth, salvation, victory over death, worship in the Spirit, and the excellence of God, Yahweh, Zion's eternal King.

I know what Christmas is about: Christmas is about Jesus. He was born in a cave so He could die on a cross so I could wear a crown. Christmas is about angels singing, wise men bringing, heralds ringing and shepherds clinging. It's about Heaven's conception, earth's reception, the devil's deception, God's reflection and man's perception.

On that first Christmas night, Mary's heart sang with gladness. She had everything a young lady could desire – a loving, devoted husband, a healthy baby boy and a God that favored and blessed her. She only vaguely understood that she was the mother of the King of kings. She lived and held within her the greatest secret of history: God's Son was birthed from her womb. Joseph must have felt that he had failed her in this hour: he could not locate a room for her to give birth to her baby; he hadn't even found a midwife. Mary probably smiled at him as she laid Jesus in the feeding trough of the stable and said, "It must be God's will for His Son to be born in a place like this." It was God's will for His Son to be born in a place like that, because every sacrifice was birthed in a barn, and Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, so we could see Him eye to eye.