For me the truth about Christmas is so profound that I am infuriated by those who want to trivialise it. Mainly the self-righteous who constantly bemoan the "commercialisation of Christmas".
There is so much good in this season that it is sad to see it reduced to nonsense.
For most of the Australian community Christmas is not a particularly "Christian" festival at all. If anything it is the feast of the family, or the celebration of the end of the year. This is not to be poo-pooed.
I say to my fellow Christians, if you lament that people don't understand what Christmas is all about you only have yourself to blame. We have lots of opportunity to articulate some of the more easily understood ideas.
God's like a baby. What ever else we think about God, Christmas tells us that God is understood when we see him as a baby. He is not Elton John, or the powerful ruler. He is like a baby.
God has strange friends and allies. The "stars" of the Christmas story are all a little odd. Mary a young girl who is quite unremarkable, who has become a cult figure...but apart from this act of motherhood she is not particularly remarkable. But then mothers are like that. Remarkable in their families. Quite remarkable. But not much known outside that sphere.
The shepherds....the wise men...a carpenter....all quite unremarkable, and not the sort of friends you would choose to win friends and influence people.
God exists in the vulnerability of our life. How tenuous his birthplace, miles away from home, in a shed in a country occupied by a foreign army. How shaky the relationship of Mary and Joseph.....he doesn't like the fact that she got pregnant before they married...who would?
This is not how we see God at all at most times.
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