If you have learned anything about me, I hope you see me as unconventional. Well at least sometimes. As you will see, my Christmas Wish is a bit different.

What do I mean, “a bit different”? I was thinking about Christmas Wishes and realized a lot of wishes are like this:

I wish we didn’t have to go to aunt betty’s this year.

or…

I wish wierd uncle bobby didn’t come to the party.

or…

i wish we didn’t have to go to both parent’s houses this year.

or…

i wish we hadn’t spent so much money on presents!

or…

i wish christmas was over already.

Is there any room left for “We wish you a merry Christmas”? Are these even “Happy Holidays”?

I remember Christmas as a child. Discovering the closet where the presents were hidden. Shaking the package and wondering what could possibly be making the noise. Pine trees (real ones for a time), lights, decorations all over the house. And plenty of cookies. My parents made it a happy time. I grew up with Santa Claus and the reindeer (can you name them all)? Elves, hot chocolate, peppermint candy canes, and gingerbread houses.

I was also taught that Jesus was born on Christmas day. I heard the story of Bethlehem, the manger, shepherds and wise men. Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

Please allow me to break this down. Scholars conclude that Jesus of Nazareth was likely born in late September. Historians say the December celebration of Christmas is just a morphing of the Winter Solstice with Christian beliefs. The story of Jesus being the light of the world is stolen from the Sun god stories of the days beginning to get longer again. Oh, and of course, the wise men didn’t visit baby Jesus in the manger.

So we have Christmas and the Winter Solstice essentially coinciding. We also have Hanukah, the Jewish festival of lights, and Kwanzaa, a seven-day African-American holiday. For a list of 18 celebrations world-wide including Festivus see here.

Maybe we should just say Happy Holidays. But then there’s another problem. We had better know what a holiday really is. The first known use of holiday or haligdaeg is from the Old English before the 12 century. It literally means holy day. So what does holy mean? 1a) set apart and dedicated to the service or worship of God or a god; 1b) dedicated to or laying claim to being dedicated to a sacred or selfless purpose. Additional definitions revolve around perfection, virtue, God-like, and pure in heart. [Source]

Me thinks we have distorted the idea of holiday. We certainly aren’t selfless. The common definition of holiday is a day on which one is exempt from one’s usual labor or vocational activity. [Source] Now that we like. And to that end, the 18 world-wide celebrations are holidays. But if your focus is on receiving gifts and grading a friendship on the cost or size of the gift, then I don’t think our common view of Christmas falls under holy day.

Now for my Christmas wish: I wish you would see Christmas as I do. The essence of the original Christmas is this: God Almighty, who created the heaven’s and earth, entered a newly formed human body untouched by sin to reconcile a sinful, faltering, unrighteous people with a holy, perfect, righteous God.

Remember that the worship of an Almighty, Holy, Creator God began with the nation of Israel. (Granted, we can follow the worship of God all the way to the beginning, but stay with me.) The record is that Jehovah God chose Abraham to be the father of a nation that would be guided by the Creator. He would be their God and they would be His people.

But every story in the Jewish Bible shows that humans rebel against God simply because we want to be self-controlling. When we take control of our own path in life we often find ourselves in tumultuous situations. God asks us to let Him guide us down the best path for our life. But we are too proud to relinquish control. Because of their rebellion against Jehovah, the Jewish people demonstrated their need for a substitutionary atonement. Their imperfect offering was in the form of innocent, unblemished animals.

But God said through the prophet Hosea, “I’d rather for you to be faithful and to know me than to offer sacrifices.” [Hosea 6:6 CEV] The problem was, appeasing God was limited, imperfect, and could not continue forever. The problem of un-holiness had to be corrected once and for all.

Almighty God the Father (Jehovah) agreed with God the Son that an intermediary between God and humans must exist. This must be someone who is human AND God. God the Son became Jesus of Nazareth to be the perfect mediator between God and humans. This is what Christmas celebrates, the birth of the God-Man, Jesus of Nazareth.

To learn more about the nature of Jehovah God, please see my blog posting: World Religion – Christianity

As always, I appreciate your Likes and Comments. You are also welcome to email me at “info@JDRockel.com” Your email address will never be sold or used for mass marketing.

Mirror Mirror – Chapter 5 is coming up next. Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas, everyone!